Nearly 150,000 get jobs through 'PenjanaKerjaya'

Human Resource Deputy Minister Awang Hashim said the job seekers, who consisted of people who lost their jobs, graduates and school leavers, have been placed with 47,000 employers nationwide.

“Since the programme began, 12 large-scale PenjanaKerjaya carnivals have been organised by the Social Security Organisation (Socso) and employers’ representatives are present to interview candidates to fill vacancies in their respective companies.

“Six of these were virtual carnivals comprising 28 locations, while for small interviews 242 programmes have been implemented,” he told a press conference after officiating the Kedah-level 2020 PenjanaKerjaya Carnival here, today.

PenjanaKerjaya was announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin under the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA)strong /strongin June, offering financial incentives of between RM600 and RM1,000 to employers for each employee or apprentice employed for up to six months.

Awang said RM160.66 million had been allocated to employers who had recruited employees through PenjanaKerjaya until Dec 23.

He said the incentive will be continued through the Budget 2021 with an allocation of RM2 billion in addition to some improved and new incentives.

“This includes training programmes for the apprenticeship category and the recruitment incentive rate has been increased from 40 per cent to 60 per cent from a ceiling salary of RM10,000,” he said.

Therefore, he advised employers to take advantage of the incentives of the programme by offering more vacancies to be filled by job seekers so that the country’s unemployment rate can be reduced.