Urban Unemployment

Unemployment m Malaya is increasing daily in cities, towns and rural areas. The Finance Minister Tan Siew Sin said that the total number of registered unemployment in six major cities alone had reached 200.000 (1972 figure) and that this number was soaring daily. This figure constituted 11.2 per cent of the total labour force. It does not however include those unemployed in Singapore which has surpassed 35,000 registered in 1972, not to mention the 100.000 school-leavers in Mainland Malaya and 25.000 to 30.000 in Singapore who are annually thrown into the ranks of the unemployed.

There are larger numbers who have not gone to register with the authorities because the chances of getting employment from this source have always been very slim. The seriousness of the unemployment situation can be felt from the following phenomena:

—It was reported 66,960 persons applied for 360 vacant posts;

—For one only vacancy as a telephone operator, 100 persons sent in their applications;

—A hotel in Kuala Lumpur wanted to recruit 110 waiters and receptionists, 4,500 persons rushed to apply;

—In Ipoh, centre of the country's tin mining, more than 2,000 people queued up for 21 jobs as labourers and the vacancies were filled by drawing lots;

—In Kelantan, a predominantly Malay state, 7,000 persons applied for a single vacancy;

—Penang, a potentially very explosive state, has the "highest unemployment rate of well over 20 per cent".

The Director of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, Abdullah Haji admitted that "Owing to limited job opportunities, not all the trained youths can get employment." He added that youths today had fears which were centred on the problem of getting jobs.