Fresh grads, job seekers choose M'sia over others to start their career

KUALA SELANGOR – As fresh graduates, it is tempting to start a career overseas due to better offers and a chance to live abroad, but many job seekers stress that they prefer staying in Malaysia.

This, the fresh graduates and job seekers said, was due to the overwhelming job incentives offered for both employers and employees.

The visitors at “Jamin Kerja Keluarga Malaysia 2022” carnival said though the wages offered were lower compared to those being promoted overseas, there were many other reasons why they preferred to stay in the country.

Final year student from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Vishnu Nair said he appreciated initiatives by the Social Security Organisation (Socso) to conduct such a carnival which benefited many job seekers.

"I love and enjoy this carnival since it benefits us all.

“It is amazing, useful and the organisers should conduct more carnivals like this," he said when met at the carnival held in Kuala Selangor on Thursday.

Asked about the choice of working in Malaysia or abroad (due to the salaries offered), Vishnu and fresh graduate Farah Dhabitah Ahmad from Kuala Selangor were reluctant to work elsewhere other than in Malaysia.

"We would rather serve our country though the salary may be lower.

“It would be great if the minimum wage was increased to RM2,500 and above since the cost of living in Malaysia is increasing," they said.

Speaking about the carnival, Farah said "it is so easy to find work since all the hiring companies are gathered under one roof.”

"This makes it hassle-free for me since I don't have to move around (from one building to another) to search for the perfect job. Thank you for making this super easy for us," she said.

Another visitor, Norazila Ahmad from Kuala Selangor said although she enjoyed the carnival, she said the organisers and government should provide more job opportunities to disabled job seekers.

"My sister has been disabled since 2013 due to an unexpected disease. Since then, she has been unemployed, and employers keep rejecting her.

"For me, I feel disabled people should be given more opportunities compared to us, who are normal," she said.

The carnival in Selangor was held until Nov 4 at Plaza 1, here, which provided over 5,600 job opportunities.

The JaminKerja Keluarga Malaysia initiative was first launched on Feb 19 based on the "jobs guarantee" concept with 600,000 job opportunities created, an initiative which involved an allocation of RM4.8 billion launched bPrime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

The JaminKerja initiative is a collaboration between the Finance Ministry, Socso and Human Resources Development Corporation (HRD Corp).

The initiative consists of three main components, namely JaminKerja Employment Incentive, Malaysia Short term Employment Programme (MySTEP) and Training and Skills Upgrading Programme.