Graduate Unemployment and Skill-Related Underemployment in Malaysia

Malaysia’s graduate unemployment rate declined during 2020–2024, but a substantial share of employed graduates continued to work in occupations classified below the skilled level. This descriptive study distinguishes between access to employment and occupational placement using the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s (DOSM) Graduates Statistics 2024 release. The published aggregate series shows graduate unemployment falling from 4.4% in 2020 to 3.2% in 2024, while skill-related underemployment rose from 29.5% to 32.2% over the same period. In 2024, 1.60 million graduates were skill-related underemployed, and the rate among employed graduates aged 24 years and below reached 66.0%. The gap between the overall graduate median monthly wage of RM4,521 and the median for graduates in semi-skilled occupations of RM2,550 further illustrates differences in occupational outcomes. The evidence describes a coexistence of low unemployment and persistent occupational underutilization; it does not identify causes or prove that individual skills are mismatched. The contribution is a three-part monitoring distinction between employment access, occupational placement and earnings quality, and a proposal to use longitudinal and employer-linked data to distinguish transitions into suitable work from persistent underemployment.