It Will Be Harder To Find a Job In Malaysia Over The Next 6 Months

By Karissa Lund  •  03 Jun 2020 in News

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Job seekers must tough it out.

Multinational financial advisory firm KPMG (North) head Datuk Ooi Kok Seng, told The Star that employment opportunities will be bleak for the next six months as companies face tight cash flow problems.

“Many companies have just started to resume operations and the heads are just starting to assess their human resources needs. They are now studying whether they need to reset their businesses or to maintain the current head-counts. There are factories that we know of that have suddenly experienced a steep plunge in orders. These are the companies that will have a tight cash flow to sustain their operations,” he said.

Ooi said companies would usually engage new staff because there is attrition (loss of staff via natural causes – retirement, resignation, etc) but since we’re experiencing a pandemic, most companies have stopped taking in new employees, mainly because there are many uncertainties regarding the future.

“There won’t be any clear signs of where the economy is heading until perhaps after the second quarter of 2020. That will be when companies may start to plan on recruiting again,” he added.

Many fresh graduates are hit hard by unemployment and limited job openings amid a volatile Covid-19 economic landscape. Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia (Samenta) national secretary SH Yeoh suggested that the government absorb some of the graduates on contract as a temporary measure.

“The government could also subsidise half the salaries of fresh graduates up to RM1,000 if they draw a salary of RM2,000 from small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The government could also encourage them to be entrepreneurs and provide interest-free soft loans up to RM50,000 as seed capital.

“Of course, prospective entrepreneurs would need to propose a viable business plan,” he said.

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