HRDNET
Malaysia practices a system of government in which monarch (Yang di-Pertuan Agong) acts as head of state. About half of the population are Malays while other ethnic groups such as Chinese, Indians and several other minorities made up the remaining of the population. Bahasa Melayu is the official spoken and written language in the country. However, there is also a sizable of population conversing in other languages and dialects such as English, Chinese dialects and Tamil.
Based on the latest statistics, Malaysia recorded 2.8% GDP losses in 2009. Some believed that it was a result from the global financial crisis that caused the export performance to lose momentum. While generally the human resources market were not affected in Malaysia, some companies still retrenched last year to reduce the expenditures.
To begin with, human resources are one of the most valuable assets for a company and a country to spur economic growth. Without human resources, the country is doomed. But of course, a country must be able to manage and turn the knowledge workers into useful resources to contribute to economy and social development.
Generally, Malaysia has a work force of approximately 9.6 million people. So far, trade and tourism remain the largest employment sectors that account up to 28% of work force. On another note, manufacturing employs around 27% and the production produces 44% for the country’s GDP. Agricultural employs 16% while service sector employs only 10% but contribute far less for Malaysia’s GDP. The unemployment rate has increased from 3.3% in 2008 to 5% last year.
Surprisingly, even though there are around 9.6 million people in the workforce, only 10% of the figure are members of labour union. Overall, Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) comprises a total of 23 unions and 500,000 workers. MTUC , a national trade union centre has poor relations with the government. Thus, the unions have little say in any Human Resource policies formed in Malaysia.
The country’s restrictive law prohibits any demonstration and strikes. In that case, the Ministry of Human Resources plays an important role to facilitate and discuss disputes with MTUC. This national trade union centre is associated with International Trade Union Conference.
Even though there are over 9 million people in the workforce, several fields such as information technology is facing a shortage of workers between 30,000 and 35,000. Therefore, demand for talented and skilled IT graduates remained high despite the global financial crisis in 2009. Fortunately, the number of engineers and high-technology workers are sufficient to improve the country’s economy and social development.
Since the country is facing a serious shortage in IT skilled workers, a number of companies recruited and hired foreign workers particularly those from India. Realizing that the country should not be too dependent on foreign workers, government has introduced an incentive program in 2001 to encourage more Malaysians living overseas to return and contribute to the country.
The program was aimed to recruit workers from finance, IT, healthcare, accounting and science and technology fields. Sadly, these Malaysians refused to even consider this option as they can earn more in foreign countries. Besides skilled workers, statistics revealed that Malaysian companies are also recruiting low skilled workers by offering low paying jobs.
Therefore, we have seen large number of foreign labourers from Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam entering our country. The positions offered to these labourers are usually refused by the locals due to low wage. As foreign labourers flood into the country, government have introduced new policies to curb the trend by encouraging more locals to join in these industries.
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