Geoffrey Williams of Malaysia University of Science and Technology warned that tourism as well as other key high employment sectors would not see much recovery this year, as the vaccine rollout and the lifting of standard operating procedures would be slow.
Williams said the country had to accept that many jobs have gone for good and “will not return”, adding that there was a need for a “whole new approach within a social market framework”.
“There are jobs where companies have found alternatives to full-time work and use freelancers, or the gig economy,” he said. “Jobs are more informal or precarious. This is a structural change.”
He said wage subsidies and government employment schemes were not a long-term solution as it created “fake jobs” that could harm the job market.
The Statistics Department recently recorded another increase in Malaysia’s unemployment rate, with 782,500 people without a job in January. In December it registered 772,900 jobless people, compared with 764,000 in November.
Chief Statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin had said the rising number of unemployed persons was partly due to a change of business strategies in tourism-related industries.
Although international borders remain closed, Barjoyai Bardai of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak said the government must begin plans to restructure Malaysia’s tourism industry to accommodate post-pandemic demand.
He predicted a shift in the tourism paradigm, as more people would be travelling for leisure and adventure in the future. This was because those who used to take business trips would now prefer to connect online.
“We have many strategic places to attract tourists, but we must develop a new concept of tourism in the future. There must be efforts to retrain and upskill workers in the sector, so they can understand the needs of tourists once everyone can travel (again),” he said.
Barjoyai said failure to do so would cause the country to fall behind and lose tourists to neighbouring countries that were more prepared.
Melissa Norman, founder and managing director of recruitment firm Aisling Group, said “upskilling is no longer a consideration but a must in remaining connected and relevant” in an era of digitalisation.
Although Malaysia would continue to see a challenging job market in 2021, she said, more companies would now prefer to hire gig workers, as it made for a more flexible workforce.
“At Aisling, we have seen a reduction in direct hires by 40% with an increase of a gig workforce by 50% across the last one year,” she said, adding that some jobs were now being designed to allow for working from home.
In relation to the current employment climate, Norman suggested for people to look at jobs in the e-commerce, technology, banking, healthcare and manufacturing industries.
She also said workers must learn new skills to widen their knowledge and remain relevant in the increasingly uncertain job market during the pandemic.