KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — The government has always taken heed of issues faced by the youth and job seekers as shown by the various initiatives under Budget 2022 as well as proposals in Budget 2023, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
He said Budget 2023 will be a boon for all job seekers and the youth in Malaysia, including a RM305 million special loan allocation for young entrepreneurs and a proposal to continue the Tekun Youth Mobilepreneur Scheme with an RM10 million allocation to fund the working capital of youths involved in delivery services using motorcycles.
“Therefore, to Malaysian youths, let us go and grab these opportunities as the government has taken heed and recognised issues faced by job seekers through many solutions brought forth in Budget 2023,” he said during the opening ceremony of Karnival Kerjaya Jamin Kerja Keluarga Malaysia 2022 in Kuala Selangor today.
In Budget 2023, the government plans to develop an additional 13 MYFutureJobs satellite centres at UTC nationwide, so as to increase their current total to 150 satellite centres.
He said that 12 centres will be located in Selangor including in Paya Jaras, Pulau Meranti, Bukti Kapar, Sungai Gumut, Bukit Cherakah, Kampung Kundang, Taman Saujana Utama, Bangi and Kajang.
“The satellite centres’ role is important in reducing gaps between the federal government and the people in small towns as well as at the grassroots level.”
Wage subsidy benefits 358,000 employers, saves 2.96 million jobs
In retrospect, he said the wage subsidy programme (PSU) introduced by the government on April 1, 2020, has benefited 358,158 employers and saved 2.96 million jobs in the country.
Tengku Zafrul said even though the programme has incurred high costs, amounting to RM21 billion, the measures initiated by the government have clearly succeeded.
He said through many measures being implemented such as wage incentives, employment retention programme (ERP) and PSU, the national unemployment rate has been reduced gradually to 3.7 per cent as of August 2022, compared with 4.6 per cent last year.
“Altogether, these are the outcomes of the government approach to continuously listen and recognise workers and employers’ woes, and offer direct solutions via many solid measures with careful implementation,” he said in Kuala Selangor today.
He said that in ensuring the people’s well-being, especially the youth, the government has fully supported job placement programmes through MYFutureJobs portal, the national employment portal managed by the Ministry of Human Resources through the Social Security Organisation (PERKESO).
According to him, as of Oct 14, the MYFutureJobs portal has succeeded in assisting 652,799 job seekers to obtain jobs throughout the country. Out of the total, 454,510 are recipients of incentives from the hiring incentive programme (Program Penggajian Penjana Kerjaya) and the job guarantee programme – employment incentives (Program Jamin Kerja – Insentif Penggajian).
“As a going concern, based on today’s event, a total of 5,643 job opportunities from 26 employers are up for grabs. This nationwide carnival represents the government’s effort to ensure that job seekers, especially the youth, gain employment in many sectors,” he said.
