MTUC deputy president Mohd Effendy Abdul Ghani said the MYFutureJobs portal could provide the government with supply and demand information about the labour market, and help reduce unemployment.

However, it needs proper management and greater clarification, he said.

Effendy said a labour force survey had shown that 1.13 million underemployed graduates were engaged in SPM-qualification jobs in 2019, an increase of 41.3% from 800,000 in 2016.

He said that the unemployment impact might be underestimated due to the lower number of people looking for work.

He also added that the Pemulih stimulus package had not addressed critical business needs even when its allocations were higher than other countries.

Effendy said the RM3.8 billion allocation for wage subsidies was insufficient and would lead to more bankruptcies among the more than 300,000 small and medium enterprises and affect more than 2.5 million employees.

“The wage subsidy scheme is a necessary relief for many but it may not be sufficient for those struggling at the margins, especially when their business revenue drops below the operating or variable costs,” he said.

He said a spike in retrenchments had occurred in the professional, managerial, and technician categories, showing an uneven result across sectors and field types.

Human resources minister M Saravanan has said that almost 156,000 people have lost their jobs since the beginning of last year. The workers were from the services, construction, support services, and administrative sectors.