KUALA LUMPUR: A country with an unemployment rate below 4% is considered to have full employment, said Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

Speaking at the Dewan Rakyat for the first time, Wahid was replying to a question by Mohamed Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) on the unemployment rate of 3% and the government's efforts to reduce it.

Wahid said the economy has experienced robust growth since 2011, contributing to an increase in employment and job opportunities.

He said the unemployment rate has declined to 3% in 2012 from 3.1% the year before.

"Even though the decrease is low, the government does not feel that comfortable with it and has initiated many programmes to increase the employment rate," he said.

These include employment agencies such as Jobs Malaysia and Skim Latihan 1Malaysia, among others to help the unemployed and graduates.

However, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the 3% unemployment rate is not realistic based on the assumption of about 80,000 unemployed graduates.

Anwar said accepting the 3% unemployment rate as good enough would not be accurate, as the ones who are employed are categorised as “under-employed".

In response to Anwar,  Wahid said the 3% unemployment rate is at a “respectable" level compared with other developed countries such as the US and UK which have 6% and 8% unemployment rates.

On unemployment among graduates, he said a study in 2012 showed that almost all graduates gain employment within two years after graduation.

"A follow-up study conducted on graduates from 2008 to 2012, found that about 60% gain employment within six months, while 15% continued their studies while the rest took a longer time to land jobs."

Wahid, who was sworn in as a senator on June 5, is responsible for the Economic Planning Unit, an agency under the Prime Minister's Department.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 02, 2013.