Sharp rise in unemployment among grads, salaries fall too

 

The number of unemployed among degree and diploma holders has seen a sharp rise in 2020, compared to a year earlier. (AFP pic)

PETALING JAYA: The unfavourable economic environment in 2020 has caused the number of unemployed graduates to increase, says the department of statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Its Graduates Statistics 2020 showed that those without jobs rose by 22.5% to 202,400 in 2020 compared to 165,200 in 2019.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the rise was observed for both holders of degrees (an increase of 22,400) and diplomas (an increase of 14,800) largely among graduates aged 35 years and above.

“In addition, more than 75% of unemployed graduates were actively seeking work whereby almost half were unemployed for less than three months,” he said in a statement.

Uzir said that in 2020, the average monthly salaries and wages of graduates dropped by 10.6% to RM4,489 from RM5,020 in 2019, the first time there was a decline in salaries since the report was released in 2010.

“Degree holders earned mean salaries and wages of RM5,471 per month in 2020, down by 9.1% as compared to 2019 while diploma holders received a mean salary of RM3,311, a decrease of 11.5% during the same period.

“It was also observed that graduates in the skilled category suffered the highest decline – by 8.0% to RM5,316 – while those in the semi-skilled category received RM2,418, a decrease of 2.7% against the previous year,” he said.

In terms of employed graduates, he said, 68.8% or 4.35 million were in the skilled occupation category, a drop by 0.8% compared to 2019.

“The decrease was seen in the occupation categories of professionals as well as technicians and associate professionals,” he said.

Uzir said the semi-skilled category gained 19.3% of employed graduates. The category includes service and sales workers, plant and machine operators, and assemblers.

The Graduates Statistics 2020 report describes the overall graduates’ labour supply in 2020 by demographic and socio-economic characteristics.

Graduates in this report are defined as individuals with the highest certificate obtained from universities, colleges, polytechnics, recognised bodies or their equivalent, with the study duration of at least two years. - FMT