THERE were more female graduates with jobs than their male counterparts last year, said the Statistics Department’s Graduates Statistics 2018 report.

The report, unveiled today, said there were 4.96 million graduates in Malaysia last year, an increase of 7.6% from the 4.61 million in 2017.

Of the 2018 figure, 3.99 million were in the labour force, up from the previous year’s 3.69 million.

“A comparison of employed graduates by sex shows that female graduates dominated with a share of 50.4%, while male graduates contributed 49.6%,” said the report.

The number of employed female graduates stood at 2.01 million to male graduates’ 1.98 million.

About 75.6% of the female graduates who secured jobs were aged between 24 and 44, with 70.4% of their male counterparts in the same age group.

The report noted that last year, the number of employed male graduates above 45 years old stood at 405,000, or 58.9%, compared with 283,000 for female graduates.

“We can understand that there were more older graduates in the male category as they could have graduated some 10 to 20 years ago, when the priority was more towards men,” Chief Statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin told reporters after the report’s launch in Putrajaya. 

Uzir added that current policies in place will ensure more room for human capital to flourish regardless of gender.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dipped marginally from 4% in 2017 to 3.9% last year, with 162,000 jobless graduates.

However, with only 8.2% being unemployed for more than a year, Uzir said it was likely graduates would not remain jobless for long due to economic conditions facilitating job opportunities.

He said this was evident by statistics that showed 79.7% were unemployed for less than six months while 11.9% were unemployed for between six months and a year.

Meanwhile, around 811,800 graduates were out of the labour force, with 62.8% being females.

Housework and family responsibilities was cited as the top reasons (34.5%) for graduates staying out of employment.

Statistics showed the bulk of graduates worked for others as employees at 84.2%, while 5% were employers.

Uzir said the 5% rate was encouraging as growth in the number of employers among graduates would lead to the creation of more jobs.

The skilled workforce accounted for 73.8% whereas semi-skilled and low-skilled workforce accounted for 25% and 1.2%, respectively.

The services sector employed the most graduates at 79.7%, while mining and quarrying employed the least at 1.1%.

Graduates were defined in the report as individuals aged 15 years and older who have completed at least two years of studies and obtained certificates from universities, colleges, polytechnics and recognised bodies or its equivalent. – December 13, 2019.