With GE14 coming right around the corner, as the youth its important to know what our political parties can and are doing for us. As one of the largest voting blocs, we have the power to sway elections any way we want to, given that we get out and vote. Therefore, it is important to know our current economic state to better understand what problems we face in order for us to vote for those who want to tackle them.
Firstly let’s take a look at youth unemployment, with youth labor force referring to those below the age of 25. The youth unemployment rate in 2016 sat at 10.5%, reaching 273,400 people in total. Malaysia’s unemployment rate however was 3.4% in 2017, with the youth representing more than half of total unemployed workers. This phenomena however is easily explained by the fact that the youth are extremely vulnerable to fluctuating business cycles and being hired last due to their lack of experience.
Another interesting statistic to note is that the unemployment rate for graduates are higher than non-graduates. It’s logical to think that attaining higher education means higher likelihood of being hired, but it is surprisingly not the case. Despite an increasingly more educated workforce, job creation however has been concentrated on creating more low and mid-skilled jobs, as Malaysian industries stay in low-value added activities that depend on cheap labor, rather than create high paying and high skilled jobs through innovation and climbing up the global value chain. This in turn makes a large number of graduates over-qualified for the majority of available job opportunities out there whilst simultaneously competing against a large number of similarly skilled graduates for the low number of jobs out there.
In the past few years, fresh graduates have been on the receiving end of much ridicule from baby boomers about graduate wages. The amount some graduates have seemed to ask for is completely inconceivable in their minds; RM3000? For a fresh graduate? Incomprehensible. They make callbacks to a simpler time, where they made much less than that for a fresh graduate and were able to buy a house, a car and even get married and start a family. How we long for simpler times.
We, however, live in times of rising cost of living, with it being increasingly expensive to live in the city, where the majority of working opportunities lie. Through many testimonies of graduates reported through Free M alaysia Today, RM3000 was a base salary that would allow them to cover their expenses and still have savings for the future. Anything lower would make saving much harder or even nonexistent. Studies have also shown that graduate wages have remained stagnant since 2007. The weighted average monthly salary for first degree graduates in 2007 was RM1,734 and in 2015 RM2,182. When adjusted for inflation, RM1,734 in 2007 is RM2,206 in 2018, which means the average monthly salary has even dipped slightly.
With the introduction of GST, rising housing costs and petrol costs among others, it will definitely be taking a strain on graduates. One thing to remember is that most companies will not hesitate to give you the lowest possible starting salary if they can, but one thing we have control over is our power of negotiation. If you have met the qualifications and are confident in your own abilities, do not be afraid to negotiate for higher starting salaries!
Meanwhile, continued education budget cuts in Malaysia are slowly dampening the ability for our higher institutions to execute meaningful programs beyond the classrooms, and to a certain extent, its slowly chasing away the best of professors to move into private universities. It also takes much more than a high CGPA to edge out our competitors, however, it has become increasingly hard for one to fully engage in extracurricular activities and achieve great results. It has proven extremely difficult given the current situation in the Malaysian education system, where we're mandated to take on average many more credit hours than the average student in other countries. Those extra hours we lose out on to spend outside of the classroom puts as at a disadvantage in allowing us to diversify outside of academics.
Savings is also a call for concern for the youth and Malaysia as a whole. The Edge reported that household savings is only at 0.9% of overall household income, with further reports that the youth seem to be spending on credit, purchasing goods before they have their income. “They will not have enough savings and will only be able to live comfortably for about five years upon retirement,” says Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
It would, however, be remiss and intellectually dishonest to say all youth are facing the same problems; we are far from that, our only common denominator is us being below the age of 25. Not every person reading will face the same problems going into the workforce. Data shows that when looking at unemployment rates of graduates by monthly family income brackets, graduates from families making less than RM1000 per month sits at 28.1% while graduates from families making more than RM5000 per month sits at 15.9%, almost half the rate. Another worrying statistic shows that 53.7% of graduates earn less than RM2000 per month according to data from 2015.
It is important to remember that even though everyone around you goes to the same classes, takes the same exams as well as hands in the same assignments, there are many complementary skills that make many graduates more competitive than their counterparts. To further clarify this, there are some basic questions you can ask: did you grow up in an English speaking household? Do you have parents/siblings/friends who can help prepare you for job interviews? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it is likely that you will fare better in job interviews and start with a higher base salary than many others.
However, there are two important things to note here; firstly, if you answered no to these questions, this does not result in you being lesser quality candidate than those with those privileges. It merely means that there are extra barriers that some have to overcome, and we must ensure that we limit those barriers for people when we can. Second thing to note is that just because you had answered yes to those questions, it does not negate nor diminish any of your successes or capabilities. What is important is that we recognize that we may have had access to tools that many of those around you never did and that it is important that we rectify this imbalance, and ensure that our national policies help those who need it the most.
It’s true that with the increasing number of amenities we have at our disposal, inequality of opportunities has been tackled to a great extent. With rapidly growing public transportation lines, extremely accessible educational tools through social media and the internet in general, many people have access to tools they did not have before.
There is evidently a lot we must do as a nation, and we cannot forget that we hold a great deal of power in our hands. We see these examples even in the recent March For Our Lives in the United States that has been led by students that national discourse can be centered around our needs too. There is still a lot for us to do, and we must remember that we only win when we all win together.
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