A government survey has revealed nearly 60,000 Malaysian graduates are unemployed, many of who cannot get jobs because of their lack of experience and poor English and communication skills, a report said.

The study by the country's Economic Planning Unit in September said the typical unemployed graduate was female, from the majority ethnic Malay race and lower income groups, the New Straits Times reported.

Many of the unemployed graduates had also majored in business studies or information technology, while 81 percent attended public universities, where the medium of instruction in many courses is the Malay language.

"Most have been jobless for more than a year," Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

"Some had jobs but not in accordance with their qualifications," he said.

Master English

The 59,250 graduates polled said they were unemployed because they had no job experience, had poor English language and communication skills and had pursued studies irrelevant to the market place.

"Universities must ensure that their graduates are marketable," said Fong.

"It's sad when after their studies, they cannot find jobs because they lack the required disciplines, skills, language and experience," he said.

"I have emphasised many a time that graduates must master the English language and ensure they have communication skills," Fong added.

Graduate unemployment has been a sore point for the government, which has so far pumped RM100 million ringgit (US$26.5 million) into skills training and re-training schemes, according to the newspaper.