Govt wants M'sians to work in higher paying jobs: Khairy

KUALA LUMPUR: The government wants Malaysians to work in higher paying jobs instead of those in the sectors dubbed '3D' (dangerous, dirty and difficult).
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the 11th Malaysia Plan emphasises on creating about 1.5 million jobs for the locals with Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)-related skills.
"We don't want to send them out there to construction sites, we don't want them as manual labourers but as engineers and supervisors," he said at the MoU signing ceremony between his ministry and Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) at Menara Allianz Sentral here today.
He said Malaysians, especially youths, have been trained to fill skilled jobs and the government has no choice but to hire migrant labour for the unskilled jobs.
The government aspires to create skilled and quality jobs for Malaysians, he said.
He said increasing the minimum wage is not the solution to get more Malaysians to pursue a career in an area dominated by immigrants.
"This is the reality of our economy today. If you talk to developers and construction companies, it's not that they don't offer these jobs to locals, they do. But there is just simply very little takers for these jobs today.
"If you talk to industries, they will confirm that present salaries, even if you increase by 10% to 15%, you will not get young Malaysians working in these so called 3D jobs," he said.