Unemployment has always been a significant issue all over the world, including in our country, Malaysia. It was most conspicuous during the pandemic, covid-19. From an economic point of view, there are 3 main types of unemployment. They are cyclical, structural and frictional unemployment. There are demonstrably different ways to cater to each type. SDG 8, which is Decent Work and Economic Growth talks about sustained and inclusive economic growth that can drive progress, create decent jobs for all and improve living standards.
One of the goals, 8.5 by 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.
Today, I would like to focus on job opportunities for fresh graduates. Being a student currently pursuing a degree, it occurs to me that it is important to be in the know of what career path is available to opt for. This is crucial to ensure job stability in order to cope and survive everyday life, considering money is the pivotal factor in today's world.
As we know, especially these days, it has not been easy for a fresh graduate to obtain a secure job position, mainly due to lack of experience.
Melissa Norman, Founder and Managing Director, Aisling Group, "According to the Graduates Statistics 2020 published by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), there were 5.36 million graduates in 2020, an increase of 4.4 percent from 2019 (5.13 million). 202,400 of them, or 4.4 percent, were unemployed, which is an increase from 165,200 (3.9 percent) in 2019.
Nevertheless, many recent graduates are still struggling to find full-time employment."
Goal 8.B states that 'By 2030, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization.'
The question is: what could we do to cater to this issue?
One of the strategies in relation to rectifying this matter that I have witnessed throughout my experience studying in an International school is a programme initiative called "work experience". This is where senior-year students are made compulsory to choose at least one of the activities available in school to work hands-on voluntarily; counted as part of their ECA (Extra Curricular Activities). For instance, students who are interested in the medical field could sign up for the vacancies at the school clinic's 'work-experience' section, where they could help out and learn bits about what the situation is like working at the clinic. This would provide the students with some kind of exposure to the career path option that they are considering and at the same time, make it eligible for them to better their resume under the experience section, which definitely would help in seeking jobs in the future.
Coming back to the purpose of SDG 8, I believe that one of the ways Malaysia could take part in achieving the goal is probably by normalising such activities among high school students as a preparatory programme initiative for real-world career prospects. It is practical in the country that we have an internship programme that could somewhat help secure a job straight post-graduation. However, as mentioned previously this does not tackle the issue where the acceptability rate of companies towards fresh grads is relatively low due to lack of experience. Therefore, we could take on the 'starting early approach' as early as secondary education in order to ensure that the goal of youth employment will be achieved.
As a result, not only that we could lower the rate of unemployment in our country, but securing decent work with good pay, especially among youth, would lead to a rise in the living standards in our economy. This at the same time could contribute to better economic growth for Malaysia's economy overall.
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