70% Jobless Clarification

OK, its safe to say that I believe the Sun got it wrong. As blogged here and here the last 2 days, I was extremely skeptical that as many as 70% of our public university graduates are unemployed.

I've just read another report on the same issue in the New Straits Times (NST) on the same day here, which essentially said the same thing:

Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar... said the number of unemployed graduates from public institutions of higher learning stands around 70 per cent, and private institutions of higher learning around 26 per cent.

Image courtesy of AkalMuda.

However, if you read the actual physical copy of the NST (shown above), there is a little caption on the top right corner that said:

• 70 per cent from public institutions of higher learning
• 26 per cent from private institutions of higher learning

The above statements clearly means something different. It just means that of the 20,000 or so unemployed graduates registered with the Ministry of Human Resources, 70% graduated from public institutions, while another 26% graduated from private institutions.

This is obviously completely different from what the Sun claimed whereby "[s]ome 70% of public universities and institutes of higher learning graduates in the country are unemployed."

Given that the total number of tertiary students in the public institutions of higher learning constitutes approximately 53.4% of the total number of tertiary students in the country, a 70% contribution to the total number of unemployed graduates in the country is obviously disproportionately large.

Well, at least one riddle solved. :)