GROUP 1

UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS:
The two key problems resulting from unemployment of resources, especially the
unemployment of labor, are personal hardships and lost production. The owners of the
unemployed resources suffer personal hardships due to the lack of income. The rest of society
also suffers from unemployment due to the lack of available production.
The unemployment of resources, especially labor, is one of the more important macroeconomic
issues facing economists and government leaders. The other macroeconomic issue with the
same status is inflation. Concerns over unemployment that emerged during the Great
Depression of the 1930s was largely responsible for developing the modern study of
macroeconomics.
The devastating economic conditions of the 1930s, which at its depth saw one out of four
workers unemployed, brought to the forefront the problems of unemployment and induced
economists to develop theories to explain the unemployment and to suggest corrective
policies. The reason that economists and policy makers have been and continue to be so
concerned with unemployment stem from two key problems: personal hardships and
lost production.

Personal Hardships
Unemployment creates personal hardships for the owners of the unemployed resources. When
resources do not produce goods, their owners do not earn income. The loss of income results
in less consumption and a lower living standard. While this problem applies to any resource, it
is most important for labor. The owners of capital, land, and entrepreneurship often earn
income from more than one resource. Thus a loss of income from one resource is not a total
loss of income. Many workers, however, often earn income only from labor. The loss of income
from labor might mean a total loss of income.
Many government programs and policies developed since the Great Depression have been
designed explicitly to address personal hardships. One of the most noted programs is
unemployment compensation, which is specifically designed to relieve personal hardships by
providing workers with a source of income when they are unemployed. While other transfer
payments (welfare and Social Security) are primarily designed to address other problems, they
also provide a source of income to the unemployed.
The personal hardships suffered by the unemployed are of concern to government leaders for
reasons that are both in the common good and somewhat more selfish.

In terms of the common good, the unemployed are members of society just like
everyone else and deserve the opportunities to enjoy the fruits of a productive
economy. An affluent society "should" be able to provide for everyone. In addition,
social problems that cause personal hardships to other members of society tend to
increase with the personal hardships of the unemployed, including crime, divorce,
suicides, etc.

Government leaders are also concerned with the personal hardships of the unemployed
for more selfish reasons. When the voting public is unhappy, they tend to elect new
leaders and toss the old ones out of office. There are few things that voters like less
than suffering the personal hardships that come with unemployment. Presidential
elections have been decided on a few million votes. A typical business-

cycle contraction can add four to five million workers to the ranks of the unemployed,
enough votes to change the "employment" status of any incumbent President seeking
re-election.

Question:
1) What is the unemployment situation in Malaysia? Analysize
2) What is the effect of Unemployment to the country?
3) How did government solve this issue?

GROUP 2
UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS:
The two key problems resulting from unemployment of resources, especially the
unemployment of labor, are personal hardships and lost production. The owners of the
unemployed resources suffer personal hardships due to the lack of income. The rest of society
also suffers from unemployment due to the lack of available production.
The unemployment of resources, especially labor, is one of the more important macroeconomic
issues facing economists and government leaders. The other macroeconomic issue with the
same status is inflation. Concerns over unemployment that emerged during the the 1930s
was largely responsible for developing the modern study of macroeconomics.
The devastating economic conditions of the 1930s, which at its depth saw one out of four
workers unemployed, brought to the forefront the problems of unemployment and induced
economists to develop theories to explain the unemployment and to suggest corrective
policies. The reason that economists and policy makers have been and continue to be so
concerned with unemployment stem from two key problems: personal hardships and
lost production.

Lost Production
Unemployment also causes total production in the economy to decline. If fewer resources are
engaged in production, fewer goods and services are produced. As suggested by the circular
flow model, the severity of the connection between lost production and unemployment is
magnified by the multiplier effect. An initial decline in the income, consumption, and production
associated with unemployment triggers further declines in income, consumption, and
production. As such, members of society, who might escape the direct immediate personal
hardships of unemployment, often succumb to the indirect, multiplicative problems of lost
production. Number-crunching economists have estimated that for each 1 percent rise in
the unemployment rate, that gross domestic product declines by 3 percent.
Lost production is especially troublesome because it is an opportunity that is lost forever. This
lost production delays society's efforts to increase living standards and address the problem of
scarcity. That is, when an unemployed worker does NOT produce output today, that output can
never be recouped. If a worker is unemployed on Monday, Monday's production is lost forever.
"But," someone might counter, "once an unemployed worker returns to work on Tuesday, then
Monday's lost output can be produced, right?" Unfortunately the worker could have been
employed producing Tuesday's output regardless. If Tuesday is spent producing Monday's
output, when is the output for Tuesday produced? Wednesday? If so, when is Wednesday's
output produced? Had the worker been employed on both Monday and Tuesday, then output
would have been produced on both days.

Question:
1) What is the pattern unemployment in Malaysia?
2) How did the government help to resolve this problem?

3) Explain how the fiscal policy and monetary policy will help government to this
issue?

GROUP 3
INFLATION:
A persistent increase in the average price level in the economy. It is measured by the inflation
rate, the annual percentage change in a price index such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or
GDP price deflator. Inflation is the most common phenomenon associated with the price level.
Two related phenomena are deflation, a decrease in the price level, and disinflation, a decrease
in the inflation rate. Inflation is one of two key macroeconomic problems. The other is
unemployment.
Inflation occurs when the AVERAGE price level (that is, prices in general) increases over time.
This does NOT mean that ALL prices increase the same, nor that ALL prices necessarily
increase. Some prices might increase a lot, others a little, and still other prices decrease or
remain unchanged. Inflation results when the AVERAGE of these assorted prices follows an
upward trend.
While short-term bouts of inflation can be triggered by anything that would cause aggregate
demand to increase more than aggregate supply, long-term inflation can be sustained ONLY
through increases in the money supply. The price level, and any "inflation" of the price level,
depends directly on the amount of money in circulation. On the flip side of this relationship,
inflation leads to a continual erosion in the purchasing power of money.

Why Study?
Inflation is a key macroeconomic issue that has been at the forefront of modern
macroeconomic analysis since the stagflation-dominated 1970s. The unexpectedly high
inflation rates during this decade forced economists and policy-makers to re-evaluate the
causes and consequences of inflation. Curtailing inflation became then, and remains now, a
primary goal of macroeconomic stabilization policies. In fact, it is THE goal of monetary
policy by the Federal Reserve System.
Question:
1) What is the current inflation situation in Malaysia?
2) What is the effect to the nation?
3) How did the government overcome this problem?
Relate your study on the government policy that is fiscal policy and monetary policy to
Over come the problem? And also look on government price intervention to solve the
problem.

GROUP 4
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysias unemployment rate rose 0.1% to 3.2% in February 2015
from 3.1% in January, according to the Statistics Department.
It said on Friday the unemployment rate was however similar to a year ago.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February 2015 was 3.2%, up 0.2
percentage point compared with 3% in the previous month, it said.
The department said the labour force participation rate in February rose 0.2 percentage
points to 67.4% from 67.2% in January 2015.
The increase was contributed by the increase of 62,700 employed personnel in the labour
market, it explained.
It said the number of employed rose 0.5% to 13.664 million in February, a 0.5% increase
from 13.601 million in January.
However, there was a 2.9% increase in the unemployed at 454,900 from 442,000 from
January. This was also a 1.9% rise from the 446,400 a year ago.
The department said unemployed refers to those who do not have a job but are interested
to work. There are two groups of unemployed that is the actively unemployed and
inactively unemployed.
The economic activity of a population depends on the demographic characteristics of that
population. The proportion of economically active population, therefore, differs between
sub-groups of that population.
These variations are measured by specific activity rates termed as labour force
participation rate. Labour force participation rate is defined as the ratio of the labour force
to the working age population (15 to 64 years), expressed as percentage.
Unemployment rate is the proportion of unemployed population to the total population in
labour force. This rate measures the percentage of unemployed population in the labour
force.
Question :
1)

Who is in the labor force? What is the percentage of unemployment in Malaysia

and what is the unemployment pattern in Malaysia?

2)

One of the unemployment group is the graduate people, How did the
government help the graduate out of this problem?

3)

Why should government overcome this unemployment problem?

GROUP 5
The increasing rate of unemployed graduates is one of the issues that triggers world's concerns
lately. Consequently, this research aims to investigate factors that lead to the unemployment
problem among Malaysian graduates from three aspects, which are graduates attributes, lecturers
competency and quality of education. This qualitative research adopted an interview method, which
was conducted to seven respondents who have the experience in teaching and working in the
industry. The majority of the respondents agreed that the graduates attributes, lecturers
competency and the quality of education, which is referred to the curriculum of a study field, are
among the factors that contribute to the unemployment problem among the Malaysian graduates
nowadays. Therefore, it is reasonable for the parties who are involved in the construction and the
enhancement of the curriculum of the related to the field of study to conduct an in-depth study. This
should be done in order to identify the problems that occur throughout the implementation of the
study area. It is important to evaluate the suitability of the implementation of a curriculum of the
study area in order to ensure the implemented curriculum can produce human resources, which
are qualified, skillful and can fulfill the need of the industries and the current market.

Question:
1)

From the statement above, there is increasing in the rate of unemployed graduates,
What is the scenario unemployed among the graduates? How did the government and the
graduate itself to counter this problem?

2)

What is the effect of this problem to the society and the country?

GROUP 6

I was reading The Edge Financial Daily 1001 Special Commemorative Feature section when I
came across an article Malaysias growing pains by Su-Yin Teoh, Deutsche Bank Head of Asean
and Malaysia strategy. In the article, the author pointed out that Malaysia is currently at a crossroad
into restructuring its economy in order to get it right. It mentions about the PEMANDU initiatives,
the Economic Transformation Plan (ETP) and National Key Economic Area (NKEA). She applauds
PEMANDUs efforts and was encouraged with the success it already achieved so far. She noted that
although there have been encouraging milestone success, the road ahead will be a bumpy one with
no short cuts .
It was a good article; however, one issue caught my eyes straight away. In the article, the author
mentioned about the unemployment and showed some distress figures. Since 2008, the unemployed
graduates with degree & above figure have rose from 47,733 to 98,154 and the unemployed
graduates with diploma rose from 42,259 to 76,185. That is a lot of unemployed workers. To make
things worse, more students are graduating every year and will just add to the numbers above. It is
estimated that about 140,000 new graduates will enter the employment market in the next two years.
The government has played a major role in educating the Malaysian public. From the initiatives
undertaken after the Razak Report, all citizens are given primary education either free or just by
paying token fee. The result is that more and more Malaysian being educated. That leads to the
growth of private universities/colleges to cater to the growing demand for education. It was serving
its purposes during the 90s when the country was hungry for local talents to push the country to
next level of development. However, since the financial crisis in 1997, jobs growth rate (which
require Diploma & above) has been growing less than the growth in human capital supply. The
result was increase in unemployment.

As
we can see, about 80% of the unemployed are in the age group of 20-29 years old. These are mainly
the new graduates. Whilst it is hard for this unemployed to get work in Malaysia, it is way harder
for them to get jobs overseas. Despite the fact that we are currently facing brain drain, with most of
our top brains opted to find better opportunities overseas, Malaysia still cant create enough jobs for
its people.
I think it is high time for the Education Ministry, Higher Education Ministry and Human Resources
Ministry to sit down and come out with a solution to this growing problem. The current temporary
measures to put them in GLC and GLIC for 6 months to 1 year through attachment programs will

not solve the problem. It is just delaying the inevitable. The three ministries need to sit down and
come out with a long term framework to match the country requirement with the supply. It is high
time that these ministries stop operating in their own tempurung or imaginary fiefdom.
Unemployed people are unhappy people. Some may choose to earn a living through illegal means.
And have the government forgot what happen in Tunisia and Egypt? The main reason for the
uprising there is because of high unemployment rate. We might be heading the same direction if the
government do not take immediate actions.
QUESTION:
1) Give your opinion about this report. Give your suggestion on how to solve this
problem?
2) Why should the government encounter this unemployment problem?

GROUP 7
QUESTION 7
Ministry aims to cut new graduates unemployment
DECEMBER 12, 2012 KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 The Higher Education Ministry has
implemented the Student Marketability Programme, which set a target to secure
suitable employment within six months for at least 75 per cent of new graduates.
Deputy Minister of Higher Education told Dewan Negara yesterday that three
approaches, the Value-added Student Development programme, Employable
Graduate programme and Collaboration with Government Agencies programme were
integrated for a holistic implementation.
This is to enable the students to obtain suitable employment either from the aspect
of qualification and income or motivating students to become entrepreneurs and in
turn create employment, he said, while replying to Senator Datuk Mohammed Najeeb
Abdullah who asked about the government strategy on graduates marketibility based
on creative, innovate and entrepreneurship values.
He said the government had also set up the Graduate Employability Taskforce, as
announced during the tabling of the Budget 2013.

In order to match graduates qualifications with the national and global job market
needs, the taskforce would focus on the requirements in the 12 National Key
Economic Areas (NKEA) under the Economic Transformation Programme. Bernama

Refer to the articles;

a) In your opinion, do you agree in this Student Marketability Programme? What is the advantages
of this programme.?
b) What do you think why that the graduate in Malaysia are unemployed?
c) Give your suggetstion on how to decrease the unemployment among the students?
d) Why government needs solve this problem?

GROUP 8
Malaysia Unemployment Rate

Forecast 2016-2020

Unemployment Rate in Malaysia is expected to be 3.10 percent by the end of

this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts
expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Unemployment Rate in Malaysia to
stand at 3.04 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Malaysia Unemployment
Rate is projected to trend around 3.40 percent in 2020, according to our
econometric models.

Forecast

Actual

Q1/16

Q2/16

Q3/16

Q4/16

2020 Unit

Unemployment Rate

3.1

3.1

3.2

3.1

3.04

3.4

percent

QUESTION
1)

Analysis the current unemployment in Malaysia.

2)

Why this problem must be tackle?

3)

Give your opinion on how encounter the unemployment problem.

GROUP 9
Budget 2016 must create jobs, help unemployed Malaysians, urge groups
BY MD IZWAN
Published: 22 October 2015 7:00 AM | Updated: 22 October 2015 9:41 AM

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan says the
28% level of skilled workers in the country currently is not enough for any country hoping
to achieve developed-nation status within the next 4 years.
The Malaysian Insider pic, October 22, 2015.Putrajaya must use Budget 2016 to help working class
citizens cope with economic uncertainty and the rising cost of living, with focus on creating jobs,
policies on foreign workers and unemployed graduates, labour and employer groups said.
The ringgit's drop against the US dollar and higher living costs due to the goods and services tax
(GST) have affected the working class the most, who also struggle with limited job opportunities,
said Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan.
"Right now, the labour market is so weak, companies are not hiring and there are many who have
been laid off. And on top of that, we are facing the problem of graduate unemployment.
"The government has to intervene in the budget. One of the items that need to be dealt with is the
unemployment of graduates," Shamsuddin told The Malaysian Insider ahead of Budget 2016 which
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will table in Parliament this Friday.
The unemployment rate in Malaysia is 3%, with a growth rate of 3.3% per year for the
duration of the 10th Malaysia Plan from 2011 until June 2015.
Shamsuddin said Putrajaya should focus on job creation and also on graduates who have yet to gain
employment.
"One of the ways is for the government to give incentives to companies that would take in
unemployed graduates," he said.
"If there is no immediate action, we worry that the unemployed graduates will have trouble entering
the job market," he said.
Shamsuddin also expressed worry about Malaysia's plan to become a developed country by 2020 as
the number of skilled workers in the country stood at 28% - a number which is too small for such a
lofty target.
"One of the things that we always raise is skills development. Right now, the percentage of skilled
workers in the country is still low.
QUESTION 9

1)

What is the unemployment scenario in Malaysia?

2)

Why graduate unemployed in Malaysia increasing ?

3)

Give your opinion on how government help the graduate ?

4)

Why government should be solve the unemployment in the country?