We are a country of great contrasts. We have thousands of unemployed in the country, including over 80,000 graduates and over 320,000 non-graduates, yet some sectors of the economy are clamouring for workers.
These sector include agriculture, construction, manufacturing and the services industry. After the recent repatriation of illegal Indonesian migrant workers, the labour crunch become worse and the government had to arrange for100,000 Pakistani workers.
What is wrong with the local unemployed? Is it because those jobs that are being filled by foreigners are 3D jobs - meaning 'dirty, dangerous and demeaning'? And shall I add another 'd' for difficult?
But I beg to differ. My experience living in a free-market society has taught me this - given enough of a monetary reward, people will do almost anything, 3D jobs included. In Western countries, highly-paid jobs are in fishing industry, long-haul transportation, and the police and fire departments.
What I would like to make clear here is that while some employers make fat profits, they balk at paying reasonable wages for their employees. Construction workers earn on average about RM50 to RM80 a day.
Cleaners, security guards, sales assistants, factory workers and kitchen hands earn about RM300 to RM700 a month depending on location and the generosity of their employers. It is small wonder than that not many people are willing to do 3D jobs.
Instead of bringing in foreign workers to ease our domestic labour woes, we should let the market runs its course. With unemployment rate below Nairu (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment), a shortage of labour would be followed by increase in wages and inflation.
When the wage rate is high enough, more people would enter the workforce and our labour problem would be solved. Those 80,000 graduates and 320,000 non-graduates would be more than happy to work for reasonable wages. In my opinion, our labour shortage is just transitional unemployment because with low wages, the unemployed keep on looking for better jobs.
It's about time that low earning Malaysians get a better deal in terms of an increase in real wages and better living standards. If wages are high enough, employers might invest more money in labour-replacing machinery hence, reducing labour demand and increasing labour productivity.
And let's just admit it, we are not a cheap-labour economy any longer.
The government is doing a disservice to average low-income wage earners by bringing in thousands of foreign workers, a move which will limit wage growth and postpone the country's shift to a more productive and efficient economy.
It's about time that the ordinary Malaysians get their fair share of our economic progress. In this regard, we should call on employers to invest in more capital-intensive and labour-saving production.
Importing cheap labour from Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh or anywhere else would only slow the country's elevation to a higher productivity economy.
