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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 6.2

Publication Date: June 25, 2023

DOI:10.14738/assrj.106.2.14999.

Jeffri, N. F. I. & Abdul Rahim, R. (2023). An Empirical Study of Graduates’ Attributes, Graduates’ Skills, Job Mismatch, and Unrealistic

Salaries as Unemployment Factors Among Malaysian Graduates. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(6.2). 307-319.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

An Empirical Study of Graduates’ Attributes, Graduates’ Skills, Job

Mismatch, and Unrealistic Salaries as Unemployment Factors

Among Malaysian Graduates

Nur Fatin Izzati Jeffri

Department of Postgraduate and Professional Studies,

Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi

MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Ramita Abdul Rahim

Corresponding Author

ramita@uitm.edu.my

Department of Technology and Supply Chain Management Studies. Faculty of Business and

Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Puncak Alam Campus, Selangor, Malaysia and

Institute of Continuing Education & Professional Studies (iCEPS) Level 2, UiTM-MTDC

Technopreneur Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor,

Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Malaysian graduates today face challenges and struggles in the employment

market. For the past few years, the unemployment problem has gotten worse. The

rising unemployment rate is a serious issue since it could harm Malaysia's

educational system's reputation and, as a result, cause some employers to lack

confidence in the capabilities of our local graduates. Malaysian universities produce

a large number of graduates, but an amazingly small percentage of those graduates

find gainful employment. This problem develops when graduates seek to succeed in

their academic achievements rather than practicing and cultivating traits within

themselves. Employers today prefer graduates with working experience. Graduates

who are selective about getting a job with a high salary do not fit the requirements

for employment. So, it is crucial to address the issue's underlying cause

immediately. This study is to determine the relationship between graduates’

attributes, graduates’ skills, job mismatch, unrealistic salaries, and unemployment

among Malaysian graduates. This study used a self-administered questionnaire that

was distributed among alumni of a public university. The sampling technique used

was purposive sampling. The sample size was determined by G*Power analysis.

Data was analyzed by multiple regression analysis using SPSS version 26.0 as a tool

to examine the relationship for each variable. The findings of this study reveal that

there is a positive relationship between the four factors that contribute to

unemployment among Malaysians, and the most important factor contributing to

unemployment is graduates’ attributes. The findings have suggested significant

factors to improve for graduates, parents, a body of government, education

institutions, as well as the industry sector.

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 6.2, June-2023

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Keywords: Graduates’ Attributes, Graduates’ Skills, Job Mismatch, Unrealistic Salaries,

Unemployment, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION

Unemployment is one of the global issues that currently occur around the world, and this

situation involves Malaysian graduates aged between 18 and 30 years old and above. According

to [1], as long as a person is actively participating in the labour market, they may eventually

lose their job. Therefore, if the issue of unemployment among graduates is not fixed, it will

inevitably contribute to the issues of the unemployed graduates, the nation, society, and even

the entire country. Additionally, if the nation's unemployment rate increases, turbulence and

protests will spread across the country and also threaten trade. Thus, graduates who have

experienced long-term unemployment might experience severe trauma and low self-esteem. It

is because the longer they are unemployed, the more pressure society and their family may put

on them. Other than that, the biggest challenge of being unemployed is that graduates could

start thinking negatively about the littlest things and feel like they are useless.

In addition, unemployment is one of the most prominent challenges facing graduates of higher

education institutions. It is because most of the graduates are unemployed when they complete

their studies, and no job openings are offered to them. Unemployment locks people in poverty,

which makes them less able to generate economic growth in the future as they lose skills and

become unemployable. Due to the movement control order (MCO), some firms have difficulties

paying their workers’ salaries. Additionally, the firm also needs to reduce its operational costs,

which will lead to a staff reduction and might stop the creation of new employment

opportunities. Consequently, this pandemic made the economy worse and increased the

number of unemployed people in Malaysia. According to [2], the continuous operation of all

business activities contributed to a further improvement in the state of the Malaysian labour

market, which in turn increased demand for both goods and services as well as employment,

bringing the country's unemployment rate down to 3.7% in July 2022 from 3.8% the previous

month. Therefore, each university in Malaysia, such as Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM),

Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), and many

more, will produce many graduates when they have completed their studies at the university,

but the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) revealed that the percentage of graduates

getting jobs after graduation is still lower.

On the other hand, most Malaysian graduates demand a high salary or benefits, have weak

attitudes or personalities, and have a poor command of the English language. Besides, they are

also too choosy about the job or company to apply, and this will cause them to be unemployed

[3]. There are five reasons why Malaysian graduates are not employed by the company, which

are: lack of industrial training, lack of problem-solving skills, poor English language skills, job- hopping, and lack of confidence. Meanwhile, [4] article proves in his article that salary,

pickiness, and bad attitudes are not the reasons for Malaysian graduates being unemployed, but

the backgrounds of the unemployed graduates themselves are. Besides, poor actuarial planning

for job demands, standards, and controls with higher education paths is one of the main causes

of unemployment among graduates of higher education institutions. Additionally, the other

prominent causes of unemployment are the incompatibility of graduate knowledge and skills

with the needs and requirements of the labour market, as well as the inconsistency of

educational policy with the needs of economic growth. According to the article [5], it stated that

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Jeffri, N. F. I. & Abdul Rahim, R. (2023). An Empirical Study of Graduates’ Attributes, Graduates’ Skills, Job Mismatch, and Unrealistic Salaries as

Unemployment Factors Among Malaysian Graduates. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(6.2). 307-319.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.106.2.14999

the unemployment rate around the country is a lagging indicator, which meant that it responds

to changing economic conditions rather than influencing or predicting them. It shows that when

the economy grows at a healthy rate, the job market is overflowing and the unemployment rate

in the country will drop. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to examine the

relationship between graduates’ attributes, graduates’ skills, job mismatch, and unrealistic

salaries during unemployment. Besides, the researcher also wants to identify which factors are

most contributing to unemployment among Malaysian graduates located in the Klang Valley.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Graduates’ Attributes and Unemployment

Employers have the opinion that students are too concentrated on their academic results to the

point where they are less able to practise the skills, which is supported by a study by [9].

Besides, focusing more on extracurricular activities and academic subjects is considerably more

crucial for obtaining a future job than developing positive character traits. The study was also

supported by [17], where there are some situations where graduates have trouble adapting

their skills to the workplace. Although it is thought that graduates without strong qualities may

have trouble finding employment in the future, this is not the most crucial quality for the sector.

Meanwhile, the article Unemployment Crisis among Fresh Graduates shows a statistically

significant relationship between the candidate's attributes and economic instability. This study

was conducted concurrently with the [18] study, which showed that certain job candidates are

picky about where they work. Therefore, based on the discussion above, this study has

formulated the following hypothesis:

➢ H1: There is a relationship between graduates’ attributes and unemployment among

Malaysian graduates.

Graduates’ Skills and Unemployment

Nowadays, graduates are more focused on achieving good academic achievement than

practically preparing themselves, which is the main factor in unemployment and a lack of soft

skills among them [19]. This finding showed a positive relationship between a lack of skills and

unemployment. Next, graduate’s ability to find employment has also proven to depend on their

technical and employability abilities. However, graduates cannot secure employment based on

employability skills alone. Besides, there are five important soft skill criteria required by

employers in the workplace, such as communication skills, teamwork, decision-making and

problem-solving, creative and critical thinking, and programme and project management skills

[15]. From the results of the study, it can be concluded that all the soft skills criteria given are

important and necessary for the employer in the search for the current workforce, and a

graduate with technical skills without sufficient soft skills will not get a job. Since employability

skills are one of the factors of employment, career possibilities nowadays are extremely limited

and have become more competitive for graduates. Thus, it shows that there is a relationship

between a lack of skills and unemployment. Additionally, in South Africa, a serious problem in

the training and education system is graduate unemployment, which is a concern due to a lack

of skills [20]. The finding confirmed the positive relationship between a lack of skills and

unemployment. Therefore, based on the previous study, this study has formulated the following

hypotheses:

➢ H2: There is a relationship between graduates’ skills and unemployment among

Malaysian graduates.