KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Human Resources Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong has announced a strategic plan to address the stark disparity between the number of high-paying jobs available and the 300,000 university graduates entering the workforce each year.

To tackle the mismatch, Sim unveiled several key initiatives, starting with Malaysia’s first-ever wage guide to provide clearer salary benchmarks across industries, empowering graduates to make informed career choices and employers to offer competitive wages.

"This will help graduates and jobseekers make informed career decisions and ensure employers offer fair wages. Then we have RM3 billion for skills training,” he said during the launch of TalentCorp’s latest study on the impact of AI, digitalisation, and the green economy on Malaysia’s workforce.

"The government has allocated RM3 billion for reskilling and upskilling programmes in 2025 to help workers transition to industries affected by technological changes.

"The focus is on jobs impacted by technology, ensuring workers can adapt and excel in new roles,” Sim added.

Apart from that, key measures include RM40 billion in grants and loans to help SMEs move up the value chain and RM120 billion in investments by government-linked corporations over five years to boost domestic industries.

"We want businesses to create value and generate more high-paying roles,” Sim explained.

This comes as Sim emphasised that the issue is not merely about a lack of jobs but a mismatch between available roles and the skills of graduates.

"This is not just about a lack of jobs, but about ensuring the right kinds of jobs exist to match the skills and aspirations of our graduates,” he said.

Sim cited a World Bank report showing that Malaysia creates just 15,000 high-paying jobs annually, with fewer than 50,000 high-skilled roles offered between 2018 and 2023.

During the same period, between 200,000 and 350,000 graduates competed for these limited opportunities each year.