Human Resource Minister, Datuk Seri M. Saravan said his ministry has taken a stance to freeze all intake of foreign workers across all sectors from now till year end, giving priority for local for take up these jobs instead.

The moratorium comes after reports of jobless Malaysians in the country is expected to reach 5.5% by end of the year after Covid-19 forced the government to impose MCO which prevented every business to shut operation. 90% of the sector saw little to zero operation during the 2 full months with partial easing of restriction only taking place after the period. Many company’s were severely impacted and had no option but to lay off employees. Some of the worst hit sectors were tourism and manufacturing, during MCO hotels were announcing shutdown, while many opted to retrench.

In Malaysia most of the 3D jobs are handled by foreign labours whom mostly come from Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar, India and Bangladesh, locals have shunned these jobs leaving company’s no other choice. However, some company’s prefer not to take locals even in factories, retail and in food and beverage industry due to lower wages. Saravanan claims there are 2 million foreign workers in the country, and will be looking to reduce the dependency of these cheap labour.

He has called on those seeking employment not to be fussy, or wait for the right job cause that possibility might never come.