KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 — Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan today said that through government initiatives, 120,237 people who were previously unemployed have now found jobs.

Answering a query by Datuk Shahruddin Salleh (PH-Sri Gading), Saravanan said that this has successfully brought down the country's unemployment rate from 4.9 per cent in January 2021 to 3.9 per cent in May 2022.

However, he said that they are still working towards reducing the rate of unemployment in the country to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels, which was at 3.2 per cent.

"Based on the statistics on the workforce from the Department of Statistics Malaysia, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate was the highest, at 4.9 per cent in January 2021.

"The rate of unemployment now has gone down to 3.9 per cent from government initiatives as of May 2022. However, the rate of unemployment still hasn't reduced to pre-pandemic levels which is 3.2 per cent," he said in Parliament today.

He said to address this, the government has introduced several new initiatives, including an underwriting programme of employment incentives, which will benefit job seekers from all over the country.

"This programme is a financial incentive given to employers. As of January 1, 2022, the new intakes are among interns, graduates, the disabled, ex-military, ex-prisoners and the general unemployed.

"As a continuation of the success of the apprenticeship programme under JaminKerja employment incentive, the government has run a programme with an incentive of RM900 per month for a period of 6 months to employers who employ school leavers and graduates between 18 to 20 in executive positions," he said.

He explained that they would be offered a six-month contract with a salary starting at RM1,500, adding that the number of employees who have benefitted from the JaminKerja Internship Programme employment incentive stood at 5,932.

"The government has also expanded the employment insurance system for job search allowances to non-immigrants to get new jobs. As of 29 July, a total of 1,487 job seekers have been approved for this program," he said.

He said the government also introduced PenjanaHRDF to address unemployment into the country, and contains 5 schemes, which includes Place and Train, B40 development, SME development, Industry Revolution 4.0 and Gerak Insan Gemilang.

"These schemes were made to help the youths and graduates get jobs as well as improve their skills. As of July 31, 85,527 trainers have joined the schemes to train these youths.