BY: NORHAYATI UMOR
SHAH ALAM, MAY 12: The Federal Government is urged to take drastic measures and introduce new policies in view of the alarming level of unemployment among the youth currently.
KEADILAN Youth Deputy Chief, Dr Afif Bahardin said the government must stop taking in foreign workers and set the requirement on all companies and government agencies to give priority to the locals.
He said, in addition, government should encourage entrepreneurship among the youth and facilitate them with financial schemes such as microcredit similar to what the Pakatan government has implemented in Penang.
“Government can also provide tax incentives to companies owned by youths, to encourage their business expansion.
“Government should help to mobilise young entrepreneurs in the country to markets their products globally,” he said in a statement.
At the same time, an organised medium providing career guidance and job-search assistance must be created.
The Economic Review | 2016 Labour Market Report published by MIDF Research revealed that unemployment among youth in this country is increasingly high since 2012.
And the local youth being referred to in the report is aged 35 and above.
Unemployment rate among youths has reached 10.5 percent with 273,400 aged below 35 years old and covering 17.8 percent of Malaysian workforce in 2016.
Dr Afif said, the situation is caused by the global economic recession and Barisan Nasional (BN) and the Prime Minister’s failure to convince foreign investors to invest in Malaysia.
“The problem is also caused by the confidence crisis relating to the current leader tarnished by the 1MDB scandal.
“Many new employment opportunities are lost due to the failure to attract foreign investment,” he said.
Kelantan has the highest number besides Sabah, Terengganu, Kuala Lumpur, Johore, Perak, Perlis and Sarawak registering double digits of unemployed youth.
Government urged to seriously tackle unemployment among youths
