Deputy Higher Education Minister Ong Tee Keat today blamed 'choosiness' as a reason for the high number of unemployed graduates.

"If the work place is far from their house, they will not accept the offer," he told a press conference at the Parliament lobby.

The deputy minister said this when revealing the findings of The Graduate Traces Study which stated that 31 percent of graduates from public higher education institutions (IPTAs) are unemployed and waiting for suitable career opportunities.

"The respondents for this study are from IPTAs, private higher education institutions (IPTS), polytechnics and community colleges. We have a total of 132,900 respondents," he said.

According to Ong, 42.2 percent of the respondents were gainfully employed within the first six months upon completing their degree.

"We also have 17.7 percent graduates who wish to further their studies and 1.5 percent of those who want to develop other skills. Besides this, we have 7.4 percent of graduates waiting for their posting as teachers," he said.

Common situation

Ong said the Graduate Traces Study is a venture by the ministry to trace and record the employment status of graduates in the country.

"I would not say that this is the first attempt in tracing our graduates' employment status, but this is definitely the first one by the Higher Education Ministry," he said, adding that there have been conflicting statistics from various quarters in the past.

According to the deputy minister, unemployment is common in many countries. "We cannot see zero unemployment in any country. The rough figure of 30 percent is normal," he said.

Ong also said the IPTS' response for the study, which was conducted throughout 2006, was not encouraging.

"We have 13 IPTS, they don't show much enthusiasm towards the study. On the other hand, 78.5 percent of IPTA graduates participated in the study," he added.