Introduction of unemployment among undergraduates in Malaysia.

According to the dictionary of oxford unemployment means the number of people not having a job. Actually The unemployment rate in Malaysia since 2000 has been consistent at the range between 3% and 3.6%. This range indeed is not alarming and can be consider normal as the unemployment could be due to transition between jobs or temporary unemployment. The first figure reinforced the seriousness of graduate unemployment in Malaysia. The unemployment rate of those with tertiary education is increasing steadily from 3.3% in 2000 to 4.0% in 2004 (Table 1). This increase does not seem to correlate with the economy cycle, unlike the unemployment rate of the secondary level.

Table 1: Unemployment Rate by Educational Level (%)

Year	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Primary	1.9	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.1
Secondary	3.7	4.4	4.1	4.3	4.0
Tertiary	3.3	3.4	3.8	3.9	4.0

Source: Malaysian Institute of Economic Research