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CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Human labour assets, which are potential and focused in creating financial of a nation, are
required in this globalization period. Despite the fact that it is not composed in any organization
proclamation reports of any association, this sort of human capital is essential in deciding the
execution of an association in the nation. Without qualified human capital assets, a nation gets to
be distinctly frail as the absence of human component that can start new activities in financial
exercises. Nonetheless, creating human capital assets that are far reaching and at a world class
level is not a simple errand and it is a test to Malaysia. At present, unemployment among the
The unemployment rate in Malaysia had increased 0.5% in 2009 based on The
Department of Statistics Malaysia (2011). Human Resources Ministry, Fong Chan Onn,
mentioned that the National Economic Action Council with the alliance of the Department of
Human Manpower had conducted a survey in 2005 and they have found that 59000 graduates and
diploma holders were unemployed after completed their degree meanwhile 30000 graduates
worked in a field that does not related with their higher educational studies. Based from resources
of job vacancies and job placement in Peninsular Malaysia in 2012, it is discovered that job
vacancies are increasing yearly. In any case, these occupations opening are filled by just a part of
the specialists. This demonstrates the unemployment issue is happened not in view of the absence
of openings for work rather it happens as a result of different variables, for example, the low
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Despite the fact that the unemployment rate in Malaysia is viewed as low when contrasted
with nations like the United States and different nations in Europe, it is not an issue to be ignored
Since labour assets is fundamental in delivering a profitable and high-pay nation, this
paper expects to recognize elements that prompt to the unemployment issue among the Malaysian
graduates and thus it can ideally get to be rules in settling this issue from happen more quick..
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1.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Graduates competency
Quality of education Factors affecting
Communication skills unemployment rate among
Choosing work attitude
Lack of Industrial training fresh graduates in Malaysia
Job Mismatch
English Proficiency
Based on the figure 1, generally the rate of unemployment of fresh graduates in Malaysia 2016
is influenced by several factors. Nasrudin (2004) in his article mentioned that there were six
factors that influenced the rate of unemployment of fresh graduates in Malaysia 2016. The factors
are mainly due to rapid increase of graduated workforce, lack of training for work preparation,
rapid increases of the population rate and rapid decrease of the mortality rate, educational
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1.2 FACTOR AFFECTING THE UNEMPLOYMENT OF FRESH GRADUATES IN
MALAYSIA
As technology increases these years, its been easier for all the students to enrol into
university and pursue their higher education especially in a private university. Therefore, the rate
of fresh graduates produced increases year by year thus provides a large force of graduate
workforce available in the market. When rapid increase in graduate workforce occurred, thus the
availability of the job in the market is limited. This cause the rate of unemployment of fresh
Organizations of advanced education these days are more on syllabus premise. They
accomplishment is just being judged by their examination result, evaluations and CGPA which is
all examination bases. Subsequently the understudy themselves begin to disregard the reason for
advanced education which is to set themselves up to adapt to working world and they are more
centred around contemplating hypothesis and retaining stuffs for examination. In this way, the
new graduate that is being created is absence of preparing for work planning and causes the
1.2.3 Rapid increase of the population rate and rapid decrease of the mortality rate
Rapid increase of the population rate but mortality rate decreases also causes fresh
graduates to be jobless. This because there is limited job vacancy is offered daily in the country. If
those that is working till old, then the new generation will never get chance of applying that
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particular job. Besides, employers prefer employees with experience which means those that has
worked for years. This requirement actually reduces the chances of a fresh graduate to apply a job
at the moment. Besides, rapid increase of population rate means the population of fresh graduates
increases too. Therefore there are abundant amount of fresh graduates man force capital is
available in market but the job vacant is very less. This actually causes the rate of unemployment
of graduates to increase.
Educational development in Malaysia is also one factor that affects the rate of
unemployment of fresh graduates in Malaysia. The main feature to the unemployment problem
among graduates is the failure of higher education institute to ensure the syllabus or curriculum
consistent with the matters required in the job market (Utusan Malaysia, 18th May 2005). The
universities abortive to provide curriculum and components of educational field that is required in
workplace skills. This causes difficulties among the graduates to obtain job that match their skills
and qualification. In general they are unable to implement what they studied in institute in real life
working field. This causes companies not preferred to hire fresh graduates from university and
they added the requirement where employees need to have few years of working experience.
Economy factor also one of the main reason fresh graduates are being unemployed these
days. For many years, the manufacturing sector has been the strongest sector in the country until it
is now being progressively replaced with service sector due to technology development. The
services sector requires people who do not only possess the right technical knowledge, but also
those who possess the right soft skills interpersonal, communication, wisdom, maturity and are
business oriented. But due to technology era, manpower is being replaced with computers and so
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on. This causes unemployment rate of fresh graduates increases. Besides that economic recession
would also cause fresh graduates to be unemployed. A recession will lead to drop in consumer
spending, affecting the business which lay off workers due to losses. A recession occurs when
there are two or more consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
This means economic growth is slower during these periods which lead to fall in sales, stock
prices incomes and maybe bankruptcy also. Thus the rate of unemployment of graduates increases
The capability of graduates is being questioned and this is one of the main factors of
education part, these graduates failed to improve their soft skills qualities such as technical skills,
problem-solving skills and communication skills, especially in English language and also in the
proactive, self-confidence and interaction skills which is important in working life. Thus this
causes employers not to prefer to appoint a fresh graduate in working places. They prefer
someone with experience as those employees are well known with working environment. Besides
that, graduates find it hard to cope with new working environment once graduated as what they
studied and what they implement is two different things. Furthermore, these graduates are lack of
confidence during attending interviews because they have never gain experience in such a
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1.2.7 English Proficiency and Communication Skills
(IPPTN) on February 2003, it is revealed that Malaysian fresh graduates are fragile in command
of English language and communicating in this language, thus graduates are having difficulty to
communicate which leads to low interpersonal relationship (Wei, 2011). In addition, according to
survey of human resource personnel and bosses conducted by Jobstreet recently, a Malaysian
employment agency in 2005, the survey shows the main problems faced by employers in hiring
fresh graduates were poor command of English language of 56% (Ministry of Higher Education
Malaysia, 2012).
February 2003, reveals that Malaysia graduates are passive and have no initiative and less
independent finish their job, and some graduates have attitudes problem, too choosy in jobs, arent
able to work as a team, not willing to learn, selfish and demand for high salary (Wei, 2011).
Furthermore, based on Job street, a Malaysian employment agency in 2005, the survey shows the
main issue faced by employers in Malaysia in hiring fresh graduates were poor character, attitude
or personality with 37%, demanding of salary with 33%, irrelevant Degree or job mismatch with
30%, fresh graduates too choosy selecting jobs and company with 27% and no suitable job
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1.3 Problem Statement
According to Rahmah et al. (2011), one of the factors that contribute to the unemployment
problem among the Malaysian graduates is the quality of the graduates itself. The employers in
the labour industry have given negative comments on the employment of fresh graduates and
mentioned that these graduates do not have the suitable skills and qualifications, which meet the
needs of the industry at the end of the day. Furthermore, the graduates are poor in the aspect of
employability skills and do not show a good working performance. A study conducted by Central
Bank of Malaysia in year 2002 has found that the Malaysian graduates are less skilled as
compared to the international graduates from overseas. These skills include technical skills,
skills (Ranjit,2009). These features lead to the difficulties for the graduates in obtaining jobs,
which meet their educational qualifications as well as their soft skill qualification. There are also
job industries reporting that the reason for job vacancies in a working field is because of lack of
fresh graduate candidates, who are qualified for the posts which required experience more than
educational qualification they possessed. This is shown from a report by National Associated of
Manufactured (NAM), in which it is revealed that there are gaps exists in the range of skilfulness
Subsequently, this is the reason that makes an interviewed candidate is not selected to gain
the post as the candidate do not meet the requirements by the industry. Consequently, the
graduates are facing problems in gaining a place in a working world, as they are not able to
compete and give a full commitment to a work. This matter is regretted because the inability for
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the Malaysian graduates to fulfil job vacancies in Malaysia resulting in the hiring of foreign
workers. Currently, a good academic achievement is no longer a guarantee for the Malaysian
graduates to get a job (Noor Azina, 2011). It is a benefit for the graduates but it is not a guarantee
Since there is a big gap between the quality levels of the Malaysian graduates with the
international standard, this matter needs to be handled in order to ensure that our country has
skilled, versatile and marketable graduates (10th Malaysian Plan, 2010). Based from a human
capital theory by Becker (1964) it is stated that human capital that has a high knowledge and skills
contribute to the increase of the countrys economic productivity. Becker (1964) also stated that a
high investment in producing useful human capitals is important as long as it give high and
positive impacts to the economic productivity. Therefore this study is conducted to identity causes
the rate of unemployment among graduates in Malaysia so that this problem can be cope by 2020.
The objectives of this study are divided into two parts which is general objective and
specific objectives. The general objective and specific objective will be identified in the
following.
The general objective of this research is to study the factors that influence the rate of
The speedy increase of graduated workforce, lack of the relationship between educational
institutions and the industry, lack of training for work preparation, rapid increase of the population
rate and rapid decrease of the mortality rate, educational development, economic recession, and
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To identify the rapid increase of graduated workforce will affect the unemployment rate of
To identify the negative impact caused by lack of training for work preparation of fresh
To identify the rapid increase of the population rate and rapid decrease of the mortality
rate will affect the rate of unemployment of fresh graduates in Malaysia 2016.
Malaysia.
To determine whether the economic recession affects the unemployment among the fresh
To measure whether the capability and quality of graduates will affect the unemployment
The significant of the study is to overcome the increase in rate of unemployment of fresh
graduates in Malaysia year by year. This research also gives a benefit to graduates to find the
factor of unemployment and develop their self in the particular field during job search. Thus this
The scope of this study is segmented to the fresh graduates in Malaysia year 2016. To be
specified we will only take count of fresh graduates from ALUMNI UNIMAS for more detailed
information during their job seeking moment. Location will be in Kuala Lumpur as currently we
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are limited with resources, time and cost. So Kuala Lumpur will be the perfect location of study as
it is the city centre where graduates from all over Malaysia seeks job.
There were some limitations with respect to the analysis and data that may affect the
Due to sample size, a small sample size has a greater probability that the observation just
relationships from the data, as statistical tests normally require a larger sample size to justify that
Besides, the questionnaires that fill by respondents would have some bias. It would be
more accuracy if the researcher can interview respondent directly. Furthermore, it would have
some difficulties to approach the respondents because they felt weird upon strangers and give
Moreover, it would be difficult to get the questionnaire all back as some of the respondent
do not realize the important of the research and did not wanted to fill the questionnaire as
Finally, cost and time became a heavily limitation to complete this study. Taking a good
respondents sample would have been indeed a costly and time-consuming activity. If cost and
time were allowed to be increase, greater volume of respondents participate in this study and thus
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CHAPTER 2
2.0 Introduction
This chapter reviews some concepts related to the topic of this study based on past
research studies. It includes perception of other researchers and the publics opinion pertaining to
factors affecting the rate of unemployment of fresh graduates in Malaysia. In this chapter, we took
five articles to support the factors that been identified in this research paper as the factor of
unemployment rate in Malaysia. These five articles Zaliza Hanapia, Mohd Safarin Nordinb, and
Ridzwan Che Rusc (2014) ; Che Mohd Zulkifli Che Omar and Shanmuganathan Rajoo (2016)
;Mohamad Idham Md Razak, Asliza Mohd Yusof, Wan Nor Syazana, Wan Effa Jaafar, and Adi
Hakim Tali (2014); Dr. Noor Azina Ismail (2011); and Rahmah Ismail, Ishak Yussof and Lai Wei
Sieng (2011).This chapter will discuss about what each research paper is talking about the factor
that affects the rate of unemployment of fresh graduates in Malaysia and will be used in this
research paper.
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2.1 Unemployment Problem in Malaysia
September 2016 from 3.3 percent a year earlier. The number of jobless persons rose by 4.5
percent or 22.3 thousand to 512.6 thousand people. Employment went up by only 0.7
percent or 97.9 thousand to 14249.6 thousand. The labour force increased 0.8 percent or by
rate was 3.6 percent in September, similar to the previous month Unemployment Rate in
Malaysia averaged 3.27 percent from 1998 until 2016, reaching as high of 4.50 percent in
March of 1999 and a record low of 2.70 percent in August of 2012;Source of Department
Statistics Malaysia (2016). Fresh graduates have some catching up to do as employers are
not too happy about their quality levels. A significant 70% of respondents said that the
standards of fresh graduates were just average, while 24% believed that they were bad and
Unemployment does not only happen in Malaysia but it is a worldwide issue that
occurs due to many unidentified reasons. According to Zaliza, Mohd Safarin, and Ridzwan
(2014), graduates competency and quality of education are the important factors in
specified that the rate of unemployment is related to the learning and curriculums of the
knowledge, self-esteem, motivation and attitudes in doing a task. They have mentioned
that technical skills need to be mastered by the graduates in order to be employed in the
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industry. Meanwhile employability skills which are called as non-technical skills, soft
skills, generic skills, key skills and core skills are required for fresh graduates in order to
be employed once completed their higher education. Most of the graduates that being
selected based from employers perspective found that most employers are concerned with
for a employers to find workers who have employability or job readiness skills that help
them fit into and remain in the work environment is a real problem. Employers need
reliable, responsible workers who can solve problems and who have the social skills and
attitudes to work together with other workers and provide genuine progress and betterment
Most graduates have no issues in term of technical skills and employers are
satisfied with their technical skills (Syed Hussain, 2008). However mentioned that these
management skills, team working, communication skills and entrepreneurial skills. Syed
Hussain (2008) revealed that 62.3% of the technical graduates are unemployed due to lack
of employability skills compared to technical skills. Employability and technical skills are
offered a job once graduated. These interpersonal skills were very important to build
relationships, ensure the sharing of new ideas and best practices, and benefit to companies
throughout services.
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2.1.2 Quality of Education
Quality of education is one of the factors that affect the rate of unemployment. The quality
of education is hard to be measured thus they define it as the product of learning outcomes from
the higher educational institution itself. The quality of education is depending on the quality of
teaching and learning process, educational facilities and infrastructures, well-planned curriculum
graduates career development (Thete, 2003). The increasing number of the public and private
and the increase of unemployed graduates. According to Hoy and Miskel (2005), a good higher
teaching, effective learning time, achievement-oriented and recognition of success of the student
in it. Ministry of Education (2010) has set five standards in Malaysian education system such as
the leadership and direction, organizational management, curriculum, co-curricular and sports,
student affairs, teaching and learning process and student excellence. The key factors affecting
educational quality are the quality of teaching, the content of the program and the evaluation by
curriculum studies and teaching and learning. Tang (2002) also said that the evaluation of
teaching effectiveness is one of the ways of measurements that can be conducted to measure the
quality of teaching and learning. According to Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Abdul
Rahman Bakar has stated that the main contributor of unemployment among graduates is due to
failure to match educational syllabus or curriculum with the job market requirement (Utusan
Malaysia, May 18 2005). Curriculum and subjects thought in university is not in line with
workplace literacy required in working field industry. Thus this affects the employment of
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graduates as their competency of being employee is being questioned in the industry due to the
quality of education.
Labour market has become more dynamic with technology increases and it reduces the
industrys need of employer in the era of globalization. This lead to competition among graduates,
employed at-will employer or not in accordance with the level of education in the end it leads to
the problem of unemployment. The unemployment is related with economic development that
should be addressed in the labour market. Unemployment can happen for short or long term. The
author has mentioned few factors of unemployment in this article such as communication skills,
Malaysia acknowledges the high importance of English Languages yet graduates from
public universities in Malaysia encounter challenges in speaking, writing, reading, and listening in
the English language for job-related tasks at the workplace(Carol et al., 2011). Carol has
mentioned that graduates still find it difficult to converse in English during job interview which
causes the employer to be doubtful in hiring graduates. This happens because private sectors in
Malaysia comprises of multinational companies and international subsidiaries, thus they prefer of
recruiting graduates that is fluent in English. Employers believe that graduates that are fluent in
English are high skilled and more effective in improve the productivity of the company. A study is
conducted where 50 companies in the state of Selangor and Perak prefers employees that are
fluent in English during recruitment of job (Wei, 2011). Therefore, graduates have to give priority
for English proficiency and communication skills in order to get hired in the industry.
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2.2.2 Choosing work
Graduates nowadays are being too choosy when it comes to applying job. The choosy
attitude of the citizens of this country is one of the reasons of unemployment of graduates in
Malaysia (Human Resources Minister Dato Sri Richard Riot Anak Jaem). A lot of planning was
companies (GLCs) and private companies. But these graduates ignore this business opportunities
that is exist due to their choosiness. These graduates tend to look for suitable jobs and promising
salary which is commensurate with their academic qualification they possessed. Besides that,
they also do not go for jobs which are not in their field of study. They prefer to work on the same
field of their studies which causes their choices of jobs reduces. This causes the rate of
2.2.3 Experience
The rate of unemployment increases rapidly due to the factor of experience. Nowadays, a
person who wants to get a job must have work experience and preferably in that particular field.
Private sectors always prioritize candidates that have working experience compared to highly
qualified graduates but experienced only in theory. This attitude leads to unemployment of
graduates mainly those that freshly graduated from higher education institution. The new
graduates are not given an opportunity to prove their knowledge and skills as many employers
does not want incur any loss due to hiring graduates that are lack of experience in working sector
For employers, experience is very important to facilitate the work. Experience is important
because employers do not need to use their resources to facilitate fresh graduates on training.
Experienced workers are already have required skills, thus is more preferably to be employed.
This helps to reduce costs need to be expensed by the employer. But this action has leads loss to
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the country because unemployment rate has increased and the amount of income per capita
decreases.
Lack of industrial training is one of the factors that affect the rate of unemployment of
graduates (Wei, 2011). The lack of industrial training which is in period of 3 -6 months provided
organization does not help these graduates to face the real challenges in the working industry.
Since these graduates does not get the real life exposure associated with job prospects and does
not meet the standard, they are not capable of getting jobs once graduated from the institution.
Besides that, they also have high competitions between graduates from other association that also
provide different training industry. Furthermore, there are many courses are offered in private
institutions that are not recognized by the government because hundreds of institutions grown like
mushroom after rain. So these study institutions are more concerned of profit that the quality thus
causes the graduates not to have a proper training in working field. This leads to unemployment
rate to increase.
Unemployment is an important problem that many developing countries are facing the
developing phase. Nation with high unemployment indicates that the human force resource is not
fully developed to achieve maximum production output. Therefore the author has considered that
unemployment as macroeconomic issue. Deputy Human Resource Minister, Datuk Ismail Abd
Mutalib mentioned that Malaysia has achieved full employment by having unemployment rate
which are less than 4%. But unemployment issues among graduates are still unresolved over the
years where 65,500 graduates were recorded unwaged which are 16.7% of total labour force in
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2010 based on Department of Statistics. These three factors are being researched in this paper to
Job mismatch is one the common topic is discussed when it relates to unemployment of
graduates from higher education institution. Job mismatch also can be defined as qualification
mismatch as it occurs at the level of formal education a worker possesses deviates from the job
requirement and skill mismatch occurs when the employer possesses higher or lower level of
skills than required to perform the particular job (Berlingieri & Erdsiek, 2012).The phenomenon
of job mismatched can be divided into 3 categories (Shujaat Farooq, 2011). Firstly, there is job
mismatch compared to graduates education level, then job mismatch compared to graduates
qualification, and finally job mismatch compared to graduates field of study. Job mismatch in
education is based on how distinguish the education a graduate poses with the education required
in the field of work he is working. Besides that, job mismatch in qualification is also determined
based on level of qualification a graduate poses with the field he is work in with the job
description. Additionally, it poses by relating the individuals field of study with their job content.
In this paper, job mismatch as a factor that influences unemployment among graduates in
Malaysia.
One of the major contributions towards unemployment among graduates is the lack of
English language proficiency (Md Yassin et al., 2010; Sharif, 2005). Based on survey , most of
fresh graduates and employees are lack in English language skills. English language proficiency
and communication skills are very important for graduates to enable the graduate to be employed.
According to the Association for Academic Language and Leaning (AALL) (2009), English
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language proficiency is defined as the students ability in using English language to communicate
with others either vocally or in written context by using correct grammar and sentences structure
Currently, higher institutions grow concern of employability of graduates due to their lack
of proficiency in English. Thus government has set requirement and exams such MUET test for
students before pursue their higher education to increase their awareness of the importance of
knowing English language proficiency. MD Yassin, et al (2010) proved that English proficiency
Lack of employability skills among graduates below from the employers expectation has
become one of the reason of most graduates are being unemployed. The capability of an
as employability. (Wickramasinghe &Perea, 2010; Dearing, 1997). Furthermore, skills are defined
as a set of characteristics which includes knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour that contributes to
individuals to be employed (Zarina, et al, 2011; Norshima Zainal Shah, 2008). While,
employability from the employers perspective denotes as work-readiness which is the skills,
contribute in achieving the organizational goal (Zarina, et al., 2011; Mason, Williams, & Cranmer,
2006). In this era, graduates are being expected to attain all the necessary skills and knowledge to
meet their employers expectation prior to their university days. However, not all graduates
employability meets the employers expectation and thus this cause to unemployment among
graduates occurs.
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employability skills. Furthermore, there is a significant relationship between employability skill
and unemployment among graduates which the significant (2 - tailed) is 0.00 levels. Rosenberg,
Heimler & Morote (2011) has proved that employability skills have influence on unemployment
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2.4 Conclusion
This study showed that having good scores did not guarantee employment for Malaysian
graduates. Effective skills training will produce graduates who are educated and skilful before
entering the working field. Moreover, it will also produce graduates with a good working ethics,
proactive and able to solve problems related to the work. Pang (2011) mentioned that there are
three primary strategies to construct an integrated human workforce, which is by; restructuring the
educational system in order to increase the students achievement, increasing the graduates skills
in order to increase Malaysia is aiming to become a fully developed nation by the year 2020.
Therefore, an English language is relatively important for cross cultural communication involving
international participation. This study also discusses the issue of unemployment among graduates
and how to overcome them. Less communication skills, soft skills and experience working and
unemployment is not as grave as its looks as reported by The Star (2013, 23 October) as Malaysia
is said to achieve full employment as the unemployment rate is below 4 %. Future graduates
should not take this casually as the number of unemployed graduates is moderately increased
through the year. Future graduates should take the opportunity of internship program as a training
ground to improve their employability skills and try to make the best out of it (Yusof, Mohd
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This part is discusses the method had used in this study. The scopes of the discussion
include research design, research methods, data sample and collection and data analysis.
This study conducts a descriptive research to examine the issues that affecting
unemployment rate among fresh graduates in Malaysia. In this study, independent variables are
graduates competency, quality of education, communication skills, choosing work attitude, lack of
industrial training, job mismatch, and English proficiency. The dependent variable is
unemployment rate.
In this study, a survey is conduct to gather primary data. A survey is a data gathering
method that is utilized to collect, analyse and interpret the views of a group of people from a
target populations (Mae Sincero, 2015). Some questionnaires are structured checklists and have
The questionnaires are a quick and efficient way to obtain information from a large
number of respondents. It is less of costly then interview hundreds of respondent. The whole
questionnaire consists of close ended question study and involves only single cross-sectional
questionnaire for the information obtained. Paper questionnaires survey was a versatile method
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because it is compatible to all respondents. Besides, the face-to-face technique is conducted when
distributing questionnaires because it is easy for researcher to explain the purpose of the
questionnaire to respondents and can collect back the questionnaires on the spot.
Graduates competency
Quality of education
Job mismatch
English proficiency
Sampling is the primary stage of selecting an adequate number of elements from the
population. Besides that, sampling is also concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals
from within a statistical population to estimate characteristics of the whole population. The
research study focuses on factor affecting unemployment rate among fresh graduates in Malaysia.
The population or population of interest is the total group of people from whom we need to obtain
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information (McDaniel & Gates, 1995). Sampling has done because it is impossible to test every
individual in the population research. Besides that, sampling also can reduce time, money and
The sample of research mainly focused the respondents in Klang Valley area. The
respondents include many types ethic like Malay, Chinese, Indian, and other types. The research
focused respondents from Klang Valley area due to limited time frame to complete this research
proposal. Klang Valley is also suitable focus area for this research because many industrial and
work places located in that area. In this study; the targeted respondents are focus on employed
fresh graduates and non-employed fresh graduates. Through this survey, we will know the factor
that will affect unemployment rate in Malaysia. The questionnaire will be distributed randomly to
both private and public sectors based companies to identity fresh graduates whom employed and
The sample for the research would be including the respondents from public sector, private
The targeted respondents for this study are focused on fresh graduates whom employed
and unemployed. They will be a good representation in this study since they are more positively
correlated to be employed or unemployed after completed studies. Thus, the respondents are
selective. The basic assumption of most survey research is that, by carefully following certain
scientific procedures, one can make inferences about a large group of elements by studying a
relatively small number selected from the larger group (Connaway & Powell, 2010).
According to Alreck and Settle (1985), for populations of 10,000 and more, most
researchers would probably consider a sample size between 200 and 1,000 respondents.
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Therefore, in terms of time and cost considerations, a convenience sample of 200 individual
consumers who had been using hand phone before are approached to collect data.
To conduct the study, primary data and secondary data are used by the researcher to
analyse factor affecting the unemployment rate in Malaysia. Primary data was collected by using
self-administered questionnaires which were distributed to respondents who were briefed on the
purpose of the study. The questionnaires can be consisting of open-ended questions and closed-
ended questions. However, the closed-ended questionnaires choose in this study because open-
ended questions were more difficult to code and analyse. The structure of the questionnaire is
clear, easy to understand, and straightforward to ensure that the respondents could understand and
The 200 sets of questionnaires are distributed to friends whom been employed and yet to
be employed after completing higher studies. The questionnaires are distributed to respondents
manually by own. All questionnaires were distributed within the Klang Valley area which is
mainly employed and unemployed fresh graduates were living. Researcher delivers all self-
administered questionnaire to respondents by hand at the same time will be collected back.
Primary data is information that collected specifically for the purpose of research paper. In
the research, the data would analyse by the descriptive for the data that quantitative such as the
demographic part.
Besides, this research would explore the factors affecting unemployment rate among fresh
graduates in Malaysia. These factors are constituted graduates competency, quality of education,
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communication skills, choosing work attitude, lack of industrial training, job mismatch and
English proficiency. Moreover, to achieve the objective of the research, researcher would try to
identify the main factor by using the mean of each factor. The data would analyse thoroughly to
make sure it can achieve the objective of the research. The sample of the questionnaire is showed
in the Appendix.
Questionnaires
The questionnaires will the basic in the research as in evaluating the features that affecting
unemployment rate among fresh graduates in Malaysia. The questionnaire will be divided into
three sections which consists general information about respondent, graduates who are working
and graduates who are not working yet. The closed question would be the demographic profile of
the respondent while the open question would be using the 5-point Likert Scale question.
The summated rating scale, more commonly known as Likert Scale, is the easiest to
construct. This scale is based upon the assumption that each statement/item on the scale has equal
attitudinal value, importance or weight in term of reflecting on attitude towards the issue in
question (Kumar, 2005). Each element will be tested on 5 point scales in which 1=strongly
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Direct and indirect causal relationship
Graduates competency
Quality of education
Communication skills
Job mismatch
English proficiency
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3.5 Hypothesis
This study is aimed to identify the factor affecting unemployment rate among fresh
graduates in Malaysia. Multiple-choice questions and Likert scale used as questions for this
research. The researchers provide a choice of answers and respondents are asked to select one or
more of the alternative given. Then, the Likert scale is a measurement scale with five response
categories ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree which requires the respondents to
indicate a degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a series of statements related to the
stimulus objects. There are several statistical techniques that can be used to analyse collected data
such as frequency analysis, reliability test, descriptive statistics, correlation test and regression.
This chapter focuses on the research methodology which is the exploratory, descriptive
and causal research design. It is also included the information of the sampling technique and data
collection method as well as the data analysis that has been use in this study.
education, communication skills, choosing work attitude, lack of industrial training, job
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3.6 Practical and ethical Issue
In this research, researcher had learned the criteria in writing research proposal. In
significance of study and so on. Researchers also work as team and responsible to own
responsibility to accomplish this research. Before develop the questionnaire, researchers will
brainstorming to get the input to develop the questionnaire. Researchers will update their work
progress and make sure all the work go smoothly according to their schedule. Besides, researchers
need to come out with questionnaire and give to respondents for their research.
Besides, in composing research report, analysts are getting the data from a large portion of
auxiliary information that get from many wellsprings of diary. Specialists are carrying on genuine
and dependably think deliberately when build up the poll. At the point when scientists are
dispersing the survey to respondents, analysts will converse with them cordially, clarify plainly
about their motivation on research to respondents and regard on respondents' right side. For
instance, if the respondent doesnt willing to fill the poll, the analyst won't constrain the
respondent to do as such. Specialists additionally ought to act morally analysts can't help the
respondents to top off the poll. All the data inside the poll is secretly. Analysts are communicating
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