LIMITED PLACES: Malaysia's government service has traditionally attracted mainly Malay applicants. It has, in the past, been forced to employ many graduates - mostly women - who could not find work. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Last month, when it advertised for three electronics technical assistants and one electronics engineer, it was swamped with 9,216 resumes for the first job and 3,705 for the second.

The response was equally overwhelming for other posts advertised, with hundreds to thousands vying to become a teacher or cartographer.

The public sector, it seems, is the most popular employer these days.

There is a reason for this.

Government service has traditionally attracted mainly Malay applicants, and the supply of Malay workers has always been higher, for demographic reasons.

'There are more and more coming into the market, compared to the other communities,' said economist Zainal Aznam Yusof.

But this recent stampede for public sector white-collar jobs is a fairly new phenomenon.

It is the result of the government's drive to produce more graduates.

One in every five Malaysian workers now has a degree or diploma, compared with one in seven five years ago.

Many new Malay graduates flock to the government sector because, as Datuk Dr Zainal said, they find it harder than others to find jobs in the private sector.

And the situation is becoming more acute because fewer jobs are being created.

Some economists have recently sounded a warning of a 'jobless growth'.

Malaysian Institute of Economic Research executive director Mohamed Ariff said at a recent conference that it was of concern that Malaysia's economy had been growing at 5.9 per cent in the past five to six years, but fewer jobs had been created.

Government projections show that there will be one million new jobs over the next three years.

That is 1.9 per cent more a year, far lower than the 3.3 per cent annually until 2004.

This is not entirely unforeseen as it is a natural result of an evolving economy.

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said it is caused by the economy shifting from labour-intensive manufacturing to services.

By 2010, more than half the jobs will be in the services sector, while fewer than one in three will be in factories.

The services sector creates fewer jobs than the manufacturing sector.

Economists expressed concern because Malaysia still has a young population. Of its 27 million people, almost two-thirds are in the working age group of 15 to 64.

It, of course, does not mean that Malaysians will not be able to find jobs.

The country has 11.3 million workers and 10.9 million jobs. That is 3.5 per cent without work, or full employment statistically.

It also has 1.9 million foreign workers.

But it will mean greater competition for jobs, and more and more jobs will require higher skills.

'Jobs will be more difficult to come by, and they will not be shared out equitably,' said Datuk Dr Zainal.

He argued that the Malay community will find it the most difficult to cope.

He contended that Malays already often have a harder time finding jobs.

Statistics show that the community has a constant unemployment rate of about 4.5 per cent, compared with 1.5 per cent for the Chinese and 2.5 per cent for the Indians.

This is partly because fewer bumiputeras enrol to study in the technical fields, compared with the minorities.

And bumiputeras also tend to have a lower level of soft skills and self-confidence, and are less fluent in English, said Datuk Dr Zainal.

There is also the undeniable fact that many employers prefer to hire people of the same race, he said. And the private sector is dominated by non-Malay employers.

There is some evidence to his contention that Malay graduates find it harder to get jobs.

Several years ago, there were about 4,000 graduates who were unable to find jobs, and 70 per cent of them were Malays, mostly women.

The government was forced to retrain them, and also to employ a large number of them.

Thus, as the job market tightens, there is a rush for public sector jobs by Malay graduates.

Datuk Dr Zainal said social tensions could arise if the different ethnic groups are forced to compete for jobs.

In a move to help alleviate the problem, the government is attempting to upgrade education.

A blueprint was recently launched which included measures such as the teaching of soft skills and making university courses more relevant to industry.

Mr Shamsuddin said this is the right step.

'We should be more concerned with employability than security of employment.

'If you have skills, there are many companies who would hire you,' he said.

But more recently, concerns were raised about a new government requirement that could herald forced restructuring of the workforce.

In the budget tabled by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi on Sept 7, it was announced that public-listed companies would be compelled to disclose their employment structure by race and gender.

'There appears to be a possible form of micro-restructuring of the Malaysian economy,' said Mr Wong Nai Chee, an MP from the Malaysian Chinese Association.

The fear is that quotas of sorts would be imposed on employment, but the government has pledged that it would not 'punish' any company having a racially unbalanced workforce.

carolynh@sph.com.sg