The Issue of Graduate Unemployment in Malaysia: Post Covid-19

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the graduates’ plans if they remain unemployed for more than one year after graduation. This matter is essential as a higher unemployment rate is expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By conducting semi-structured interviews on ten graduates in one of the public universities in Melaka, Malaysia, it was found that the majority of the graduates plan to apply for works even if the works are meant for a lower level educational background. Besides, only a few of them plan to join the gig economy by learning new skills and upgrading themselves. This trend shows that fresh graduates in Malaysia are still having a high dependency on jobs offered by the public or private sector. Their proactiveness to self-learn and enhance their skills after graduation is still lacking. It gives a signal to the tertiary education providers to re-design their curriculum by instilling specific traits and personalities that can change the graduates’ mindset to be more proactive. Besides, the curriculum should include more hands-on courses related to the gig economy to ensure better graduate employability in the future.