150,597 found jobs, exceeding expectations, says PM

 

Muhyiddin Yassin said four pilot programmes are being planned to provide more than 35,000 opportunities for persons with disabilities (PwP), wet market traders and those in the food and beverage industry.

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 150,597 job seekers have managed to obtain employment through 12 programmes implemented as at April 23, exceeding the expectations of the government.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the success exceeded the cumulative projection as at April 2021 and the government was targeting to create 500,000 job opportunities this year.

“The government’s efforts in raising investments have succeeded in creating 33,907 new jobs, 76% of them in the skilled and semi-skilled categories.

“This is a part of the target of 160,000 new jobs from the commitment of investments for 2021,” he said in a Facebook post today.

In the message, Muhyiddin announced today that he chaired the third meeting of the National Employment Council (NEC) held via video conferencing.

In the meeting, the prime minister was informed of the details of the employment retention and generation initiatives under the Economic Recovery Plan.

“The meeting was also told of the issues and challenges of employment in the informal sector.

“From the findings of 6,202 engagement programmes conducted, the number of self-employed (OBS) including gig workers who received social protection from Socso increased from 71,000 in 2019 to 81,000 in 2020 and the latest number is 142,000 (2021),” he said

Muhyiddin said Grab Malaysia has tabled a strategy to empower the domestic economy through digitalisation with four proposed pilot programmes capable of providing more than 35,000 opportunities to generate income in e-hailing for persons with disabilities (PwP), wet market traders as well as those in the food and beverage industry.

Elaborating further, he said in recognition of the difficulties of PwPs and vulnerable groups in obtaining access to income generating opportunities, NEC has asked the transport and women, family and community development ministries as well as local authorities to study the proposals, including legal provisions to ensure the initiatives are carried out soon.

“The meeting also announced that the UP Career Programme launched on April 12 especially for the urban poor and hardcore poor has succeeded in assisting 489 applicants in obtaining employment.

In this regard, the council agreed to expand the programme more aggressively with a wider target to assist the socio-economy of the group to help them get out of poverty,” he said.

The prime minister also said to boost the composition of NEC members to be more inclusive, three more permanent members representing the finance, entrepreneurship and innovation sectors were appointed, namely Maybank Investment Bank Bhd director Sharifah Sofianny Syed Hussain; Persatuan wanita bumiputra dalam perniagaan profesion Malaysia (Peniagawati) president Azlin Ahmad Shaharbi and GoGet co-founder Francesca Chia.

He also reminded the government ministries and agencies to continue giving attention as well as priority to matters on employment initiatives.

“I would like to emphasise that NEC is a KPI-driven initiative. There should be a sense of urgency on this matter and there should be no delays as our primary focus this year is to provide employment opportunities and generate income for the people,” he said. - FMT