Thus, it is no surprise that Budget 2022 unveiled a host of employment measures targeting the M40 group, many of whom lost working hours or jobs as businesses struggled to stay afloat during the various movement restrictions.
Headlining the measures are the RM4.8 billion JaminKerja programme aimed at creating 600,000 job opportunities through employment incentives, 80,000 short-term jobs in the public sector and GLCs, and the upskilling and reskilling of 220,000 workers.
In addition, the Job Search Allowance under the Social Security Organisation (Socso) was also extended to provide those who lost their jobs a percentage of their former wages while they look for work again.
Syed Hussain Syed Husman, president of the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), cited a recent EIS report which said professionals, technicians and associate professionals made up 64% of retrenchments this year, most of them from the M40 category.
MEF believes the job creation initiatives proposed in Budget 2022 can reduce the unemployment rate to 4% from the 4.5% rate in September 2021, at which point Malaysia would be considered to have full employment.
“The JaminKerja job guarantee will greatly assist those in the M40 category to gain employment,” he told FMT.
“The allocation for upskilling and reskilling will also greatly assist employees from the M40 category enhance their skills and be trained in new areas relevant to the needs of the current labour market.”
He said that workers need to be trained to meet the demands of the fast-changing world, particularly in the area of digital disruption.
Yeah Kim Leng, a professor of economics at Sunway University, said improving employment prospects is of particular importance to the M40, as they were not necessarily in as dire need of direct assistance as those in the lower-income groups.
“For the M40, you need a robust economic recovery whereby employment, training, or entrepreneurship opportunities are available for them to continue uplifting their standards of living.”
He said the goal of recovery should not just be to restore the M40 group to where they were pre-pandemic, but also to allow them to reach an even higher standard of living than before.
“If they are able to meet their dreams of transforming into a T20 group member, that would be the desirable objective of government support in terms of sustaining their increase in income so that they may achieve a higher income status within the shortest possible time,” he said.
