Over 120,000 job seekers successfully placed through KSM initiative - Saravanan

KUALA LUMPUR - A total of 120,237 job seekers have been successfully placed through various activities carried out by the Human Resources Ministry (KSM) until July 29, said its Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan.

He said this was part of KSM’s efforts to reduce the country’s unemployment rate, which stood at 3.8 per cent in June compared to 3.9 per cent in May.

"This is the lowest rate recorded since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country,” he said in a statement today.

He said that among the steps taken included the JaminKerja Wage Incentive (JKIP) programme that benefited job seekers nationwide.

"This programme is in the form of financial incentive given to employers recruiting new workers from Jan 1 from among apprentices, graduates, vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities (PwD), former military, ex-convicts, senior citizens and the unemployed,” he said.

Saravanan said the ministry also continued the JKIP Apprenticeship Programme by giving an incentive of RM900 per month for a period of six months to employers who hired school leavers and graduates aged 18 to 30 in executive positions.

"These apprentices are offered six-month contracts with a starting salary of RM1,500 and the JKIP Apprenticeship Programme statistics as of July 29 show a total of 5,932 people (have benefited from it),” he said.

He said the KSM also established the HRD Corp Placement Centre (HPC), which acts as a job-matching platform made available by employers, with 43,903 job opportunities available through the platform as of July 31. "... whereby over 6,000 people obtained employment in various sectors and 60 per cent (3,600) of them are youths earning as much as RM2,000 and above,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said KSM would continue various incentives and create more programmes as well as mechanisms to assist Keluarga Malaysia to obtain jobs and, thus, reduce the country’s unemployment rate. - BERNAMA