Scattered population, poor infrastructure among causes of Sabah’s high jobless rate

KOTA KINABALU: Poor infrastructure and the challenging geographical distribution in Sabah are among the factors contributing to the state having the highest unemployment rate in the country.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Mustapha Sakmud (pic) identified these as the most glaring factors among numerous other reasons.

“The poor infrastructure makes it difficult not only for access to education but also for businesses to operate and thrive,” he said here Wednesday (Aug 30) when asked to comment on why Sabah has the most unemployed people in Malaysia.

He said the migration rate was also comparatively low compared to other states

.

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“Approximately 96% of jobseekers opt to remain in Sabah rather than seek opportunities in other states or regions,” he added.

He said the MYFutureJobs portal saw Sabah’s jobseeker registration as fourth highest in the country, indicating high supply against its average demand of about 67,000 vacancies a year.

These vacancies were mainly (47.3%) for elementary occupations like cleaning and manual labour, he added.

He also said 55% of Sabahans live in rural areas, making it more challenging for people to find jobs as there are fewer opportunities there.

Recently, Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar pointed out that Sabah has the most unemployed people in the country.

He said some 29% or 169,800 people were jobless here, out of the total 588,700 unemployed in the nation.

In response to this, Mustapha said amid an improvement in the national employment rate, it has remained a concern that the ranks of the jobless were consistently high in Sabah.

The unemployment rate currently stands at 7.5%, more than double the national unemployment rate of 3.5%, he added.

Sabah also registered 3.7% gross domestic product (GDP) growth last year in comparison to the national growth rate of 8.7%, he noted.

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Mustapha said continuous efforts were being made to improve labour market conditions in the state with his ministry, through the Social Security Organisation (Socso), actively organising various programmes.

These include regular job matching not only in Sabah, but also in other states as well as the Klang Valley, he said.

As of this month, a total of 228 interview sessions and 58 job readiness programmes have been organised in the state to facilitate job placement, he added.

“Sosco has also fostered multiple strategic collaborations with local community points such as polytechnics, community centres and community colleges.

“It has introduced 16 MYFutureJobs Satellite Centres which can be used as platforms or one-stop centres for employment services in (their respective) community,” he said.

To address Sabah’s structural issues, MYFutureJobs has actively organised career awareness programmes in secondary schools, aimed at exposing students to developments in labour market trends as well as future job requirements, he pointed out.

“Various tools are also used in these programmes to help them select suitable courses for higher education,” he added.

Employers who successfully localise talents for positions that usually go to foreign workers are entitled to incentive packages as well, he said.

Mustapha also listed reskilling and upskilling programmes for SPM-level school leavers and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students who are unemployed, as well as informal sector workers.