“100 Job Applications, One Interview” – What Challenges Does Youth Face in Employment?

Why is this topic relevant to me?

We often say that youths are the pillars of our country, but in recent years, stories of university graduates facing unemployment or turning to delivery jobs have become increasingly common. Youth unemployment affect not only recent graduates but also reflect the state of society and even impact all our futures.

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Out of the 100 applications that I sent, I’ve got rejected by 99 with only one interview response.

Hanis, a 28-year-old artificial intelligence solutions engineer, shared her challenging job-seeking experience with Newsgraphy.

To stand out in the workplace, after completing her undergraduate degree, she travelled to Ireland to pursue a one-year master’s programme in data science.

Despite holding an overseas degree and possessing technical skills, she still faced lengthy waiting periods and numerous screening rounds.

To secure a job opportunity, she made highly strategic preparations, first analysing herself and listing ideal job types, then setting targets based on company size, culture, and industry category, avoiding throwing her resumes around.

Even so, of the 100 resumes Hanis submitted, she received just one interview invitation, with the other 99 applications either rejected or met with silence.

“Out of 100 opportunities, receiving just one (interview invitation), honestly it feels like winning a trophy. It feels like an achievement in this tough job market.”

However, she didn’t overjoy, but rather seized this only opportunity, performing at her best during the interview, ultimately securing the position.

Hanis’s job-seeking experience, to some extent, reflects the common circumstances of youths nowadays. Despite many young people being well-educated, even holding master’s degrees, they still repeatedly hit roadblocks in the challenging job market.

This is not merely a sense of individual helplessness but a structural challenge of our times. In conjunction with National Youth Day (15th May), let the data speaks on the youth employment issues.

Youth Unemployment Rate Nearly Triple the Overall Rate

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Youth unemployment is not unique to Malaysia, but a problem shared by many countries globally.

Taking Southeast Asia as an example, the average youth unemployment rate in the region was 7.95% in 2023, but rates were significantly higher in some countries, such as 13.26% in Indonesia and 10.66% in Malaysia, while Cambodia’s rate was as low as 0.72%.

In Malaysia, the official data shows that as of March this year, the national unemployment rate was 3.1%, with 529,600 unemployed people. This figure represents a decrease of 0.2 percentage points or 27,000 people compared to last year.

However, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 30 was 6.3% or 399,400 people – a decrease of 0.6 percentage points from the same period last year, where three-quarters of these (299,700 people) were young people aged 15 to 24, with an unemployment rate of 10.3% for this age group.

Nevertheless, this figure represents the lowest since February 2020, indicating that unemployment problem amongst 15 to 24-year-olds are improving.

Most 15 to 24-year-olds are still students, are they also considered unemployed?

According to the International Labour Organisation’s definition, the youth unemployment rate refers to the percentage of 15-24 year-olds actively seeking work in the labour market but unable to find employment, as a proportion of the total youth labour force.

In other words, the youth unemployment rate only calculates the working population (those already working or actively job-seeking), not the entire population in that age range. Full-time students who are not seeking work are not included in the labour force.

Looking at it by state, Sabah has the highest youth unemployment population, with 106,800 unemployed young people as of 2022, accounting for 21% of the national total. The more economically developed state of Selangor follows closely behind with 37,500 unemployed young people, a difference of nearly threefold.

Why Sabah?

Former Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar once stated that Sabah’s economy relies on small and medium-sized enterprises, which often cannot offer competitive salaries. Additionally, the large number of foreign workers and undocumented immigrants in the area intensifies competition in the labour market, further weakening employment opportunities for local youths.

Former Deputy Human Resources Minister Mustapha Sakmud from Sabah believes that the high proportion of rural population, remote geographical locations, and lagging infrastructure development limit economic growth, leading to fewer new job opportunities.

Balancing Dreams and Reality?

Besides Hanis, many young people are caught in a vicious cycle of “high education, low employment”. Despite holding university degrees, they are forced to compromise between expectations and reality, taking jobs unrelated to their studies.

Online media WeirdKaya reported that a young person named Aisy, who graduated from the University of Malaya, became a delivery rider after repeated job application failures to maintain his livelihood while continuing to seek full-time work and attend interviews under a flexible schedule.

People think that if you’re doing a job like this (delivery rider), you’ve failed, but what they don’t realise is that this is a stepping stone, not the final destination.

Meanwhile, a 32-year-old man named Khairul with a wife and children, told Sinar Harian that since graduating in business management in 2018, he has applied for over 50 full-time positions in the past six years without success. He later took part-time work as a delivery rider and night market vendor to support his family and repay his education loans.

He stated that one of the common rejection reasons he receives from potential employers is that companies cannot afford his salary because he holds a bachelor’s degree.

What’s Behind Youth Unemployment?

Educational Qualifications and Skills Mismatch

We may have overemphasised the importance of academic qualifications whilst neglecting skill development and diversified career development paths.

In recent years, various industries have been disrupted by emerging A-B-C-D innovative technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, and Data), causing significant changes in economic structure. However, the existing education system has not adapted promptly to changing market demands, leading many young people to face severe challenges in their job-seeking process.

According to the “2023 Graduates Statistics” report released by the Department of Statistics, at least three out of every ten graduates are “underemployed”, meaning they are engaged in semi-skilled and low-skilled work inconsistent with their qualifications, as the skills they have acquired are not fully utilised in their current roles.

The Department of Statistics has stated that graduates aged 24 and under are often more willing to accept work below their skill level to accumulate work experience, enrich their resumes, earn income, and solidify their position in the graduate market.

From the Human Resources Ministry’s statistics, in 2017, approximately 76.5% of job vacancies were elementary positions (pekerja asas) – jobs which are not requiring higher education, while only 2.8% were professional positions requiring university qualifications.

However, by 2023, the situation had improved, with the proportion of basic vacancies decreasing to 31.5% and professional vacancies increasing to 15.8%.

Language and Mathematical Barriers

As Malaysia aspires to become a high-income and technologically advanced nation, we need to cultivate talent with diverse skills and innovative thinking, especially in core competencies like language communication and mathematical logic.

Although Malay is our country’s official language, many employers place greater emphasis on applicants’ English proficiency, putting young people with insufficient English skills at a distinct disadvantage in the job-seeking process.

According to the 2023 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination results, the English failure rate was 11.2%, more than four times higher than for Malay. However, compared to previous years, this figure has decreased.

The performance of Mathematics is even more concerning. In 2023, over 85,700 SPM candidates failed mathematics, accounting for 23.2% of examinees, meaning almost one in five students failed mathematics, making it the highest failure rate among compulsory subjects in SPM.

Regarding the reasons for mathematics failures, Utusan Malaysia quoted Dr Anuar Ahmad, an education expert from the National University of Malaysia (UKM), reporting that many students may have fallen behind since primary school, and the COVID-19 pandemic meant they spent nearly 60% of their secondary school years without receiving education in school.

He said that if problems are not addressed early, students still cannot master mathematical foundations by secondary school. Combined with insufficient face-to-face teaching, they ultimately struggle to cope with more challenging mathematics courses in SPM.

Skill Enhancement is the Solution

Youth unemployment issues not only affect individual development, but also bring long-term concerns for our economy.

Low purchasing power among young people may shrink future consumer markets, dragging down overall economic growth. When local opportunities fail to provide profession-matching employment, young people tend to seek development abroad, exacerbating brain drain and weakening our country’s strength in global competition. Furthermore, high unemployment rates may trigger political dissatisfaction and social unrest, potentially influencing election results and impacting national political stability.

To tackle youth unemployment, the Government has vigorously promoted Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in recent years to bridge the gap between education and industry, while implementing multiple initiatives aimed at enhancing practical skills needed by youth entering the workforce, including:

• Establishing the Graduates Reference Hub for Employment and Training (GREaT), providing skills training and entrepreneurship training programmes.
• Launching the National Structured Internship Programme (MySIP) and MyNext Programme, offering practical experience for graduates.
• Expanding funding for micro-credential courses to help gig economy workers transition.
• Enlarging the scale of vocational training through the National Employment Council to respond to market changes.
• Launching the MYFutureJobs mobile application to provide job seekers with highly matched positions more quickly and effectively.
• Introducing shared economy platforms by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), providing young people with more flexible work and employment opportunities.

These measures also align with the Government’s MADANI Economy framework, which aims to ensure Malaysians secure more meaningful and higher-paying jobs through enhanced skills and productivity.

“It’s not the youths’ fault”

Regarding youth unemployment issues, Hanis believes this is not the fault of young people themselves but rather an imbalance of supply and demand in the job market.

According to her, one of the primary reasons for rejection she received was that they proceeded with a candidate who better matched their requirements.

As someone with a Master’s degree, she was initially surprised by these responses, “but after so many rejections, I came to understand that it’s competitive to get a job because there are lesser job for larger pool of graduates.”

She admits that compared to 20 years ago, choosing to work in unrelated fields may not be a bad thing nowadays. “In this tough situation, doing what you’re passionate about or maybe doing what you’re studying is considered like a luxury.”

As job-seeking methods become more diverse, Hanis advises young people not only to be active on platforms like LinkedIn and Jobstreet but also to bravely initiate contact with strangers to understand company culture and even showcase personal portfolios.

More importantly, young people should not blindly submit resumes during their job search but should clearly know what they want.

Using her own job-seeking experience as an example, she first listed her interests, strengths, and weaknesses, then asked herself one question: “Can I see myself doing this job for the next 20 years?”

For Hanis, the answer is yes, “External things will come and go, but your passion will live on and will drive you out from there.”

This article has been translated from its original Chinese version.

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