Sabah worried about rise in unemployment

 

There were 184,200 jobless Sabahans in 2021, according to state science, technology and innovation minister Yakub Khan. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: The unemployment rate in Sabah has risen drastically over the past three years, the state assembly was told today.

Unemployment rose from 5.8% in 2019 to 8% in 2020 and 9% in the fourth quarter of last year, state science, technology and innovation minister Yakub Khan said, adding that there were 184,200 jobless people in 2021.

Saying this was a worrying trend, Yakub added that the state and federal governments had been working hard to reduce unemployment.

For instance, he said, a total of 110,038 active job seekers from Sabah and Labuan had been registered in the MyFutureJobs portal.

“The portal has offered 43,229 vacancies as of March 22 this year. At the same time, there have been 8,684 job placements between 2021 and February this year,” he said.

He also told the state assembly that the government would consider the possibility of training its youths to become YouTubers as a new means to earn a living.

“Yes, becoming social media influencers is the latest method to generate income so we will take notice of this,” he said in reply to a suggestion by Kunak representative Norazlinah Arif in winding up matters regarding his ministry.

“If there is a need, we will hold training sessions to facilitate this matter.”

Norazlinah had earlier urged the state government to consider training the youth to be YouTubers.

“There are many young people who have raked in millions of ringgit doing so. This is also a good way to promote things like our lifestyle or tourism, apart from generating income for our youths.” - FMT