Minister says AI not primary reason for job losses

 

PARLIAMENT | Human Resources Minister R Ramanan said artificial intelligence (AI) technology is not among the top reasons for job losses, stressing such a view is "inaccurate".

Citing data from the Social Security Organisation (Socso) from 2023, Ramanan (above) said the top reasons for job losses are business closures, voluntary separation schemes, and workforce reductions.

"In the top six (reasons for job losses), there are none that involve AI," he told the Dewan Rakyat this morning.

Ramanan was responding to a question from Rosol Wahid (PN-Hulu Terengganu), who pressed the minister on "contradictory" claims that AI had no impact on employment prospects.

Rosol said that innovations in science and technology naturally lead to a reduction in jobs, stressing that providing AI courses did not guarantee employment.

Ramanan rebutted this view by saying that the local population must be prepared for the future with AI skills or risk falling behind.

"We have to train our people in the use of AI - we cannot wait until AI is really needed to teach them (how to use it)," he said.

Ramanan also dismissed claims that AI had reduced jobs, pointing to Socso's MYFutureJobs portal, saying it currently displayed upwards of 600,000 job vacancies compared to 188,062 job seekers.

Rosol Wahid

"AI does not reduce jobs, but completes jobs," he quipped.

Lack of data

On June 2, financial economist Lim Kok Tiong stressed that the impacts of AI on employment in Malaysia could not be accurately assessed due to a lack of data.

"Efforts to comb local news for evidence of AI-induced rightsizing have proven futile.

"Unlike the explicit announcements made by multinational companies, most rightsizing exercises in Malaysia are not sufficiently transparent to be directly linked to AI," he said in an analysis published on the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Iseas) Perspective.

He highlighted how the implementation of AI in company operations inevitably translates to workforce redundancies.

Earlier, in his response to Azman Nasrudin (PN-Padang Serai), Ramanan said 42,807 people lost their jobs between January and June 12 of this year.

"Out of that total, about 40.85 percent, or 17,485 people, were laid off due to business closures and downsizing," he said.

Another 33 percent, or 13,990 people, had managed to successfully find employment through MYFutureJobs, he added. - Mkini