Local job seekers are not threatened by foreign workers in securing jobs, Parliament was told today.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Abdul Rahman Bakar said the presence of foreign workers is usually concentrated in sectors that are deemed by some to be "dirty, dangerous and difficult".

"Thus, the locals are not threatened by the intake of foreign workers," he said, adding that employers have to advertise via the electronic labour exchange or job clearing system for a minimum period of two weeks before opening the vacancies to foreigners.

"Sometimes, for certain sectors, we don't get applications from the locals after 30 days and that's when we decide to offer the job to foreigners."

According to Abdul Rahman, the government follows certain regulations pertaining to the intake of foreign workers.

However, he said, since a company's productivity leads to the nation's productivity, the government recognises that the presence of foreign workers is a contributing factor to national productivity.

Abdul Rahman was responding to a supplementary question from Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (BN-Santubong) who asked if the government follows procedures in employing foreign workers.

'2,021,086 foreign workers'

He said that there are some 2,021,086 foreign workers in the manufacturing, plantation, construction sectors, and as domestic helpers.

"They are not categorised according to academic performances, but their experience and readiness to work for a certain period of time according to their contract," he said.

In replying a different question from Razali Ismail (BN-Kuala Terengganu), Abdul Rahman said as at Nov 29, there were 64,688 active vacancies and 89,865 registered job seekers.