A Comparative Analysis on the Perceptions of Public and Private Sector Employers against thePerformance UKM’s Graduates

Competition to acquire jobs among graduates nowadays is getting intense due to the globalisation and the increase supply of graduates’ manpower. UKM’s graduates are not exceptional for this matter, expecially when confronted with competitors at the international level in attempt to secure jobs within the private sector. Employers today are more preferred to employ ready made workers so that they do not have to spend for additional training. This is a major constraint faced by most graduates since university’s education is most likely unable to fulfil the specific requirements of every employer, especially with regards to jobs in the private sector which normally requires dynamic skills. Thus, the main objective of this article is to analyse differences in the perceptions of the public and private sector employer on UKM’s graduates. More specifically, the objective of this article is to analyse to what extent the private sector employers’ perceptions differ to that the public sector employers. Since the private sector is the major source of job supply, failure to gain entry into this sector is likely to increase unemployment among the graduates. Generally, this study discovered that the perceptions of public sector employers on the graduates’ attributes are relatively higher compared to the private sector employers. The study also revealed that factors influencing the employers’ perceptions include ethnicity, sector, occupational status and working experience of the respective respondents (employers).