I wish to comment on the letter, The poor state of our graduates , by Dr Mana. I disagree with the blaming of graduates for not being able to secure a job. It has nothing to do with the quality of their degrees or command of the English language, etc. If so, then we should see the workplaces full of foreigners. Yet, I still see local faces making up the bulk of our graduate workforce.

The fact is that there are not enough jobs to go around. It is not the fault of the graduates that after six years of study on completing their SPM, their skills are not wanted.

Why is this happening? It is because employers allow non-graduates to do the work usually done by graduates, simply because they want to cut costs. Book-keepers can do accountants' jobs, draftsmen can do architects' job and so on. When employers in Malaysia prefer non-graduates to do the work of graduates because non-graduates are paid less, how can graduates find employment?

Secondly, graduates in Malaysia are worked to the bone because they are not paid overtime. Employers pile work on their employees forcing them to stay back in the office until 9pm everyday instead of going back at 5pm. Either the labour laws in Malaysia are weak or their implementation is.

Basically, if you make seven graduates do the work of 10 people, you are automatically denying three people a job. If our government is truly interested in achieving full employment, then they should put an end to the pseudo-slavery practices in our workplaces.

Third, is the increase in automation. Western countries have a labour shortage which is why they encourage machine-oriented services. However, we do not. Giving bank tellers' jobs to ATMs, for example, means fewer jobs for accountants, lawyers, managers and so on.

Finally, piracy in Malaysia severely erodes the job base of graduates. What work is there for IT specialists when pirated software is part and parcel of Malaysian business practice. The largest number of unemployed graduates in Malaysia are IT graduates. We only have our government to blame for encouraging us to study IT at the universities but not implementing laws requiring the respect of intellectual property rights.