JobsDB Moments (August 2009)
Poll: Employment A Priority
Well, this is no surprise but a poll result shows that employment is the constant in the voters mind.
According to a poll conducted in Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s 1Malaysia blog outof Of the 5,224 people who voted, 1,684 or 32.2% viewed employment as the most important consideration followed by security.
A total of 1,674 or 32% of the people regarded security as the most important factor, while 1,501 or 28.7% opted for housing. Only 365 or 7% felt that transportation was the most important issue in the country.
Malaysians were asked to rate from a list of four choices on what they considered as the most important issue in their life — employment, security, housing or transportation.
Lesser Number of Unemployed Graduates?
Expect lesser numbers of graduates this year. So says the Higher Education Ministry.
It’s minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin was quote in the media as saying that a study conducted by the ministry showed that 30 per cent of the total 170,000 graduates from three years ago were unemployed.
He said the number fell to 26.5 per cent in 2007 and 24.1 per cent last year.
Khaled said a good economic climate played a big role in reducing unemployment but he was hopeful the number would drop further this year.
Having said that, he also expressed his disappointment with graduates are not attending entrepreneurship programmes organised by the ministry.
"Of the 170,000 graduates produced yearly from 2004, only 10,000 will attend entrepreneurship programmes each year," he was quoted in the report.
MNC's to create 5,000 Engineering jobs.
More good signs on the economy, and better yet, the jobs scenarion. According to the Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC), some 5,000 engineering jobs in hardware and software designing will be created by multinational corporations (MNCs) and local electronic companies in the country by year-end.
In a media report, it's chief operating officer Ng Wan Peng said that about 5% of these jobs would be related to hardware design engineering of integrated circuits (ICs)
She also added that so far this year about 5,000 engineering jobs have been created.
Locals Only For Margma
Bad news for the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (Margma) and good news for locals, especially those retrenched.
According to news reports, Labour Department said no to hiring of foreign workers as proposed by Margma earlier, as the organisation needs to improve work conditions and wages to attract locals.
"I have instructed my officers to find out what measures the manufacturers took to seek local workers, and what kind of work conditions and wages they provided so that a decision could be made fast (by the department)," the department's director-general Datuk Ismail Abdul Rahimhe was quoted in the report.
The report stated tahat although the department had yet to receive a formal application from the association, he had directed his officers to take proactive action and contact the association immediately to find out its needs.
Consumer confidence increases
Expect more spending by Malaysians now on. Reports noted that consumer confidence in Malaysia improved in the second quarter of the year compared with the first quarter as individuals began to feel “less negative” about the current state of the economy and more optimistic about its future.
The reports said that the local Consumer Confidence Index was up from 83 to 94 alongside increases in the indexes of other Asian countries, namely Singapore, China, Thailand and Indonesia, according to independent market research agency InsightAsia Research group’s latest survey.
It added that even though economic growth was expected to remain negative this year, emergency economic policy measures and recovering equity markets had lent support to confidence, it noted.
Private pension given green light.
Those not involved in current pension scheme can rejoice. A private pension funds scheme will kick off by next year.
The announcement was made by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who said the new scheme would target the two million self-employed and those who were outside the current pension scheme.
The media reports quoted him as saying that the new pension funds could either be operated by new fund management firms to be licensed by the Securities Commission, or by existing firms.
He added that the funds would be regulated by the Securities Commission.
(Source: Jobsdb Malaysia)
|
