Nearly a million vacancies in electrical and electronics industry

 

PARLIAMENT | The electrical and electronics industry is in dire need of workers, the Dewan Rakyat was told.

According to Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar (above), the government job matching website MYFutureJobs had 847,785 advertisements for vacancies in the industry as of Aug 31 last year.

Of this figure, 279,007 vacancies were for engineers while 249,129 vacancies were for technicians. The remainder were vacancies for factory staff.

The figure was revealed in a parliamentary written reply to Sim Tze Tzin (Harapan-Bayan Baru) who asked the government to state its solution for the labour shortages faced by the industry.

Sim cited a far lower vacancy figure of 4,000 engineers, 2,500 technicians and 15,000 factory staff.

Sivakumar said the Social Security Organisation (Socso) had been assisting 10,767 employers to find workers. As of Dec 31 last year, he said Socso had helped 20,996 placements. He did not state when Socso began this programme.

He said the Human Resources Ministry was also addressing the problem with its National Dual Training System - a hybrid system in which practical training at certified companies and theoretical training at the National Dual Training System Centre.

"This programme has produced thousands of graduates based on the National Occupational Skills Standard, including the E&E sector to fulfil the industry's needs," he said.

In 2021, then minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Mustapa Mohamad revealed that E&E accounts for 40 percent of Malaysian exports.

Malaysia is also a critical component in the global semiconductor trade.

According to the Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association, Malaysia held a 13 percent global market share in chip testing and packaging. - Mkini