Press Digest - One out of three graduates unemployed

PETALING JAYA: The jobless rate among graduates in the country has reached a high of 34% from 30% three years ago, meaning one out of three is unemployed.
According to figures from the Statistics Department, the unemployment rate for September was 3.5%. Based on the country's labour force of 14 million people, close to 500,000 people are unable to find a job and a quarter of them are graduates.
With thousands more fresh graduates entering the job market which is not growing in proportion to the rise in the number of job seekers each year, they will find it increasingly harder to find any job at all, less so an ideal job.
According to a report in Nanyang Siang Pau today, industry players attributed the high unemployment rate among graduates to the imbalance between supply and demand in the job market as well as the fact that many of them are choosy.
Delving further into the problem, some of the industry players pointed out that the mismatch between demand and supply of talent is a key reason why so many graduates are unemployed.
Many employers also turn away fresh graduates as they tend to job-hop for better pay.
The rate of unemployment among graduates looks set to rise further at the turn of the year unless a lot more opportunities are created in the job market.
Meanwhile, the Statistics Department said the pay increment for the average Malaysian is less than desirable.
The average pay for graduates was RM3,100 a month last year, which was a tad higher than the RM3,000 recorded a year earlier.
Factoring in inflation, a pay raise of RM100 a year is in effect zero increment, according to the report.