Most Malaysian Fresh Graduates Unemployed Because Expect RM6,500 Salary

According to a few business associations, besides being too choosy about the job, asking for unrealistic salary is one of the biggest reason to flat-out reject the hopeful applicant.

Fresh grads should remember that even though having paper qualification is a plus, experience is still king when it comes to salary negotiations.

In fact, Jobstreet revealed that 68% of the university graduates have too high of a salary expectation, whereby 30% of them actually wrote RM6,500 as their expected (starting) salary.

Time to get back down to Earth guys…

The business association chairman to Nanyang Siang Pau said:

“The fresh graduates were actually offered with some job opportunities but they turned down the offer because they reckoned the salary given is too low.”

Moreover, poor command of English among fresh grads leads to their downfall in securing a job. Most employers prefer candidates that can speak and write well in English in this globalised era.

Having bilingual or multilingual traits are hot-picks by employers because of their ability to handle clients that don’t speak English. Remember when China employers have shown special interest in Malaysians who can speak Mandarin and English fluently.

According to Department of Statistics Malaysia, the unemployment rate among fresh grads have increased from 30% in 2013 to 34% in 2016.

On September 2016, the unemployment rate in Malaysia is 3.5% out of the 14 million Malaysians that are in the labour market.

This means that there are 500,000 Malaysians who are still jobless, and out of this number, a quarter of them are university graduates, according to Sinar Online. 

We can’t fully put the blame on them as a few fresh grads have admitted that the demand for a higher salary is to meet the ever growing cost of living.

Most Malaysians share that pain too. More so for those of us living within the city. From transportation to rental, those expenses alone could burn a hole right through your pockets. Parking fees and fuel can easily total up to RM500, and don’t forget about paying for the toll as well. How to save up la like that!

Let’s talk about the makan part. Eating out in a city like Kuala Lumpur can be hefty. In the outskirts of town, a serving of rice and vegetable normally cost you RM3 and that is already flat rate. If you’re not careful with what you put on your plate, it could easily cost you RM10 for a plate of economy rice. Wahlao, what part of ‘economy’ is this?

Everyone needs a roof over their head and renting a room in the city can be quite pricey. Forget about attached bathroom, renting a small room in city can easily cost between RM400 to RM600.

And don’t even think about buying a house in the city because even staying 10km from KL already cost at least RM600,000. Just rent a small room good enough la.

Source: pinterest

Perhaps with Malaysia’s increasing cost of living, fresh grads demanding for a higher salary is okay. However, some Malaysians would beg to differ as fresh grads who complain about their salary are also the ones who are splurging on shopping, cafe hopping, gadgets and the likes.

So what do you think? Are the fresh grads in Malaysia really asking for too high a salary? Or is it justifiable? But of course, don’t lah straight jump to RM6,500!