Nearly 150,000 found jobs via PenjanaKerjaya

PENDANG: Nearly 150,000 job seekers managed to get work through the Hiring Incentive Programme PenjanaKerjaya within the six months since its launch in June, says Awang Hashim.

The Deputy Human Resources Minister said the job seekers, including those who lost their jobs, graduates and school leavers, were placed with 47,000 employers nationwide.

“Since the programme began, 12 large-scale PenjanaKerjaya carnivals had been organised by Socso and employers’ representatives were present to interview candidates to fill vacancies in their respective companies.

“Six of these were virtual carnivals involving 28 locations, while for small interviews 242 programmes had been implemented, ” he told a press conference after opening the state-level 2020 PenjanaKerjaya carnival here yesterday.

PenjanaKerjaya was announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin under the National Economic Recovery Plan, offering financial incentives of between RM600 and RM1,000 to employers for each employee or apprentice employed for up to six months.

Awang said RM160.66mil had been allocated to employers who had recruited employees through PenjanaKerjaya until Dec 23.

He said the incentive would be continued through Budget 2021 with an allocation of RM2bil, in addition to some improved and new incentives.

“This includes training programmes for the apprenticeship category and the recruitment incentive rate has been increased from 40% to 60% from a ceiling salary of RM10,000, ” he said.

Awang urged employers to take advantage of the incentives by offering more vacancies so that the country’s unemployment rate could be reduced. — Bernama