Over 160,000 jobs to be created this year - PMO

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), in a statement today, said the government always welcomes offers from Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers and the SME Association of Malaysia to work together to overcome the unemployment rate through initiatives under the 2021 Budget, especially when it involves skills upgrading and digitalisation.

This was conveyed during the second National Employment Council (NEC) meeting held virtually and chaired by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Among those who joined the virtual meeting were Petronas chairman cum Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) pro-chancellor Tan Sri Ahmad Nizam Salleh, Khazanah Nasional managing director Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan, Sime Darby chief executive officer Datuk Jeffri Salim Davidson and Malaysian Employers Federation president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman.

In the meeting, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) provided a situation report on the country’s employment ecosystem, while the Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (LAKSANA) presented the progress status of programmes initiated by the NEC.

In addition, the Special Task Force (STF) also submitted strategies to overcome the issue of unemployment and job mismatch so as to achieve three main objectives, namely matching human capital based on industry demand, increasing highly skilled employment opportunities and strengthening cooperation between the academic sector and industry.

“Although the country is still under the Movement Control Order (MCO), the government is optimistic that targets set can be achieved as the strategies are also designed to take into account MCO compliance and new norms.

“Among them are 200 webinar sessions as well as 180 online interview sessions with various promotions conducted to ensure the people obtain information and take advantage of the opportunities offered,” the statement read.

Towards this end, the STF will also be cooperating with non-governmental organisations to ensure each implementation remains inclusive, the statement said.

According to the statement, Malaysians who have been impacted or are seeking employment can register on the MyFutureJobs portal, https://www.myfuturejobs.gov.my/, a stop centre that offers more than 200,000 job opportunities.

It offers information and access to employment-related initiatives, including skills improvement and retraining, advisory services and also the latest employment-related programmes.