Chicken and egg: High youth unemployment rate in Malaysia

When it comes to youth unemployment, blame is often placed squarely on graduates lacking the skills and experience that are necessary, which render them less attractive to employers.

But graduates themselves commonly retort that they cannot gain experience if they are not given any opportunity to work.

This “chicken and egg” situation has led to a high youth unemployment rate in Malaysia (10.7 percent), which according to Bank Negara’s 2016 annual report, is more than three times the national unemployment rate (at 3.1 percent).

Malaysiakini spoke to Barjoyai Bardai, an economist from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, who explained how this “chicken and egg” situation came to be and how to address it.

Barjoyai said many graduates these days frequently do not meet the high expectations of their employers, and lack some vital, in-demand skills – emotional intelligence, creativity and innovation, as well as the ability to anticipate and prepare for the future.

“All these three skills are not taught in schools or universities directly. We are busy giving our students what is thought to be the best fish, rather than teaching them how to fish,” he said.

Barjoyai added that employers shouldered some of the blame, with some not teaching their employees these skills or not knowing how to, and with job training programmes that focused on very specific skill sets.

As such, he proposed that employers contribute to a fund, similar to the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), to train graduates in these essential skills, which he called part of a "grooming or finishing of life achievement programme".

Universities can also carry out similar programmes, he added, but predicted that public universities, especially, would be reluctant to tack on "non-academic components" to their existing programmes.

“Some very aggressive private universities may want to invest in these programmes (so that) their graduates will be more marketable,” he mused.

Experience over training

Jobstreet Malaysia senior marketing communications executive Jessica Heng told Malaysiakini that their 2017 survey showed that 75 percent of employers found the quality of graduates to be "only average".

According to their survey, the top five reasons for fresh graduate unemployment were unrealistic salary or benefits (72 percent), choosy about the job or company (64 percent), poor character, attitude or personality (64 percent), poor command of the English language (59 percent) and poor overall communication skills (53 percent).

Jobstreet Malaysia country manager Chook Yuh Yng noted that employers generally prefer to hire experienced candidates, rather than training graduates from scratch, but added that they do need to be more willing to put a little faith in training youth.

“Talent can be nurtured from young, instead of just hiring ready-made talent,” Chook said.

Penang Institute social studies and statistics programme senior analyst Yeong Pey Jung agreed, and pointed out that youths struggle to find employment because they are competing not only with their peers, but also with far more experienced candidates.

“In a trying economy, companies will always choose to hire someone with experience, rather than spending resources to train fresh graduates, leading to fewer opportunities for the youth,” she added.

Yeong also noted that young people may have unrealistic expectations for their starting salaries and are unwilling to settle for less, with Penang Institute’s own research showing that a large percentage of college students do not even know the average starting salary for fresh graduates.

“In this sense, if the youths are unable to accept a position that is beneath their expectations, the period of unemployment will be lengthened as they continue to search for the ‘right’ job,” she said.

In order to break this cycle, Yeong suggested that youths attend training programmes for soft skills, such as interviewing techniques, composing cover letters and projecting their skills to employers.

“In terms of experience, companies should offer internships to university students so that they can gain knowledge and experience of the workforce.

“For more technical jobs, apprenticeships can be introduced as part of vocational skills training,” Yeong said.

Mothers rescheduling interviews

A number of employers said as much, with Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan saying that many youths suffer from lack of experience and an inability to communicate their skills effectively to employers.

“(The youths) are likely to be the last to be hired and the first to be made redundant,” Shamsuddin said.

Carol Lee (photo), director of child enrichment centre Starz Studio, said that instead of focusing on why the youth unemployment rate is so high, it is more important to find means to resolve the issue.

However, Lee did relate a few incidents where potential employees had their mothers calling in to reschedule their interviews.

“To me, an individual should be responsible for arranging their own interviews. By having their mothers call on their behalf, it would give a very bad impression to the potential employer,” she said.

Though some of the youths Malaysiakini spoke to understood these concerns, most nevertheless found it frustrating to bear the brunt of the blame for not finding a job.

'Invest in youths'

Accounting and finance graduate Ooi Kai Yih, 22, said that fresh graduates are quick learners and can be moulded easily due to their age, but he understood why employers preferred to employ candidates with more experience.

“Compare a student who has done multiple internships to one with no internship experience. The better choice would be to employ the one with experience,” he said.

Sara Affendy, 23 (photo), who is majoring in film and digital media, slammed employers for harping on the lack of experience of fresh graduates.

“How do we attain this experience if we are not given any opportunity to work?

“Both sides need to work together to combat this issue immediately. If no chance is given to the youths, how do they expect us to gain this frequently cited ‘experience’?” Sara asked.

Sharan Chandran, 24, also questioned the excuse, saying that it is too expensive to train fresh graduates.

“Youths often provide 10 to 15 years in a growing company. Their longevity in services, alongside the typically lower salaries they earn, would often compensate for training costs within the company.

“Companies should, therefore, invest in youths as it will be beneficial in the long run,” Sharan explained.

For business management graduate turned human resources executive Sarveswari Ramanaidoo, 25 (photo), employers need to be more proactive to stem the rise of the youth unemployment rate.

“If employers want to hire youths and expect them to have the required skills, then they should send them for training,” she said.

“But if employers keep on saying the same thing, then I would imagine that half of the country’s youths will eventually be unemployed.” - Mkini