KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's youth unemployment rate dropped to 10.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year compared to 11.1 per cent for the same period last year.

Deputy Minister of Human Resources Mustapha Sakmud said the high unemployment rate among youths is a global phenomenon faced by most countries.

"It takes into account that this age group is in the transition process from their academic years to the job market and then through the process of gaining employment.

"Towards that end, the government will continue to formulate and implement various initiatives across ministries and agencies to help reduce the unemployment rate as a whole, including among youths in urban and rural areas," he said during the question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat here today.

He was responding to a question from Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim (PN-Arau) on government efforts to tackle youth unemployment as a result of job mismatch, lack of skills and issues concerning job quality and quantity.

He said the Human Resources Ministry (KSM), through the Social Security Organisation (Socso) has also intensified several programmes, including the MyFutureJobs platform which provides more than 1 million job vacancies and 148,000 professional job vacancies.

In addition, Mustapha said a total of 1,366 career fairs were organised nationwide of which 21,740 job seekers, 78.1 percent of them youths, successfully secured placements.

On the performance of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (ILJTM) graduates in the job market, he said that based on evaluations conducted, 99 percent of employers were satisfied with their work.

"KSM is also intensifying efforts to hold programmes through Talent Corp with a focus on development, marketability of the country's young talent through synergy and collaboration across ministries, departments, government agencies and higher education institutions," he said.

-- BERNAMA