Being known as the land below the wind, Sabah is definitely a world of endless opportunities. Surrounded by the sea, and blessed with rich resources on land, Sabah is the land of untapped potential, where local communities thrive in diversity. With every passing year, more and more people join the state’s labour force. In 2019, Sabah recorded 2,025,700 new labourers1. Young local graduates prefer to stay in Sabah for work. A study found that 96% of respondents are willing to remain in the state post-graduation and only 3% wanted to seek work opportunities in Peninsular Malaysia2.
Despite the state being the sixth-largest contributor to Malaysia’s GDP in 2019, Sabah has a labour force participation rate of only 70%². Its unemployment rate is the highest in the country at 5.8%². Youth unemployment in Sabah was at 14%. Sabah also has the highest poverty rate (19.5%) in the nation and the unemployment crisis continues to put families into financial insecurity.
The majority of Sabahans hold formal job employments (60.3%), while others are self-employed (31.4%) and the remaining live on current transfers such as donations, aids and grants, official assistance, and pensions (8.3%)⁴.
A child that sets aside their education to work is limiting their potential in the long run. They will most likely continue the cycle of unskilled labour, low pay, and poverty. Yet it is a common occurrence for children from low-income families in Sabah to start working at a young age⁷. In 2018 alone, the state had the highest labour force participation rate among 15 – 19 years olds with 143,800 youth employed⁷.
The state is known for its large stateless (undocumented) population. Some are former Filipinos, Bajau Laut, Indonesian plantation workers, as well as irregular migrants from Indonesia and the Philippines who have visited the state and settled here. Despite multiple generations, children from stateless families are not granted the same education opportunities as Malaysians².
Movers and shakers who are creating employment in Sabah
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