KUALA SELANGOR - The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the Malaysian labour market, and over the period, a number of businesses were forced to reduce their staff.
As a result, more people, including youths found themselves jobless.
In view of this, the government had since stepped in to assist those affected by initiating numerous programmes and incentive schemes.
According to Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, these initiatives had successfully reduced the national unemployment rate from 5.3 per cent to 3.7 per cent.
"One of the initiatives was the wage subsidy programme where the government channeled close to RM21 billion for the benefit of a total 322,177 employers nationwide.
"The government has always listened, and solved issues faced by the people and supported all platforms that assist job seekers," he added.
He said this during the opening of the "Jamin Kerja Keluarga Malaysia 2022" carnival, here on Thursday.
Commenting further, Tengku Zafrul who is Barisan Nasional's (BN) candidate for the Kuala Selangor parliament seat in the 15th General Election (GE15) said the government was always on the ground, focusing on resolving unemployment and other issues facing the nation.
He added that in the 2023 Budget, an allocation of RM305 million in loans was specially carved out for young entrepreneurs.
"Not only that, we are also looking into the 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.
"All these will benefit job seekers in the country whether it is in the 2022 Budget or 2023 Budget.
"Therefore, I urge all Malaysians, especially teenagers to grab this opportunity and make full use of the assistance provided by the government,” he said.