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Are fresh grads in Malaysia too

demanding?

A new survey reveals why, in Malaysia, 72% of

applications from fresh grads are rejected
BY Santi Arnaiz / 06 Sep 2017 / Share

Nearly 7 in 10 Malaysia employers complain that fresh

graduates are too demanding.

This is according to a new survey conducted by JobStreet

Malaysia, which found that high asking salaries and
benefits were among the top reasons that employers
rejected 72% of applications from the nation’s next
generation of workers.

Latest statistics show that Malaysia has a youth

unemployment rate of roughly 10.7%, nearly triple its
unemployment rate across age groups. With job creation
in the country concentrated in low and mid-skilled work
opportunities, demand has stayed largely stagnant for
Malaysia’s more educated applicants.

According to the survey, employers are often hesitant to

hire these fresh graduates, citing that many were choosy
about their jobs and demonstrated poor attitudes (64%),
had a poor command of the English language (59%), and
had a general lack of communication skills (53%).

Norashikin Ismail, former human resources director at

Maju Group and current head secretariat of Malaysian
workforce training program SL1M, calls them the
“strawberry generation”, chalking up their poor
employment rates to unreasonably high standards.

Even the 2% of employers that were reportedly willing to

pay fresh graduates RM3,000 (about $950), would find
difficulty meeting the youth in the middle, as Norashikin
said fresh graduates are often the first to turn their noses
up on offers.

“Some job seekers have rejected job opportunities offered

to them just because they did not want to leave their
villages to take on challenges in new places,” she said. If
these fresh graduates are to find work, Norashikin said
they’ll need to start stepping out of their “comfort
zones”.
 “The job seekers should accept jobs with reasonable pay,
as long as they can gain experience from such
employment,” Norashikin said. “Most of us started our
career at the bottom before we climbed up the ladder.”’

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