Malaysia faces youth unemployment crisis

According to police officers on the ground, drug taking is epidemic. Youths usually start off smoking the local narcotic leaves of the Ketum tree. Many progress to other drugs, which they have to buy. This has led to a dramatic increase in crime, including house break-ins, motorbike thefts and shoplifting. Some even rob their parents and siblings to pay for their drug habits, often holding their parents at knife-point. These crimes are often hidden from the system where police prefer to work on solutions with the parents rather than going through the formal legal processes.

Youths in the kampungs are often idle, bored, lose self-esteem, and develop apathy towards life in general. This feeling of hopelessness often leads to bouts of depression that are never diagnosed or treated. The few employers in rural areas prefer older employees who are perceived to be more responsible and reliable.

Urban Youth – Another hidden segment

This segment is also underreported as many youths are also still living with their parents and not actively looking for work. The past couple of years have seen job redundancies where younger workers are being laid off laid off before more senior workers. This added more than 21,000 to unemployment levels last year.

A Job Street survey found the 58 percent are choosy about what job they do or company they work for, 58 percent are considered of poor character, attitude or personality, 52 percent have a poor command of English, 49 percent have poor communication skills, and 66 percent have unrealistic salary expectations.

Tolerance within Malay culture has decreased towards jobs within the hotel, hospitality, and tourism industries, putting a massive block on employment prospects. A generation ago, these three sectors were considered acceptable. Today these jobs are considered dirty, low and dangerous. Serving alcohol to others is now almost taboo in Malay culture. Consequently, the hotel, hospitality and tourism industries prefer employing foreign workers to avoid cultural and religious issues.

Foreign investment coming into Malaysia tends to require low and unskilled workers. These jobs offer low salaries and there is a need to leave home to work, which doesn't appeal to local youth. FDI in Malaysia is creating jobs for foreign rather than local workers.

Government Inactivity

One of the major problems in tackling youth unemployment is that the government hasn't analysed the root causes of youth unemployment, which is also grossly understated. Statistical definitions which don't count people who are not actively looking for work is hiding additional youth unemployment in the urban areas and the rural heartlands. These hidden segments may add as much as another 35-50 percent to youth unemployment figures.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad during parliamentary question time last July said that the "unemployment rate among youth between 15 and 24 years old is a normal phenomenon faced by developing and developed nations….(where) …This group is said to be in a transition process between a learning environment and the realities of the employment market."

This gives the impression the government isn't really serious about the problem, especially with the ideas to tackle the problem coming from the 28-year-old Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq. The minister opposed raising the retirement age from 60 to 65 on the grounds that older workers are taking potential jobs from younger unemployed people. Syed Saddiq also suggested that the Indonesian motorcycle hailing service GoJekcould be introduced into Malaysia to create jobs. This has been met with fierce criticism because of the danger of motorcycles on Malaysian roadsand competition GoJek would give existing taxi drivers.

Unemployed people who have never been in the workplace are not covered by the EIS unemployment insurance scheme. This is forcing youths to stay at home with without being able to make any financial contribution, straining households financially.