Most Malaysians Want to Work Abroad

by JobStreet.com Malaysia on Friday, 29 July 2011 at 13:55

Kuala Lumpur, 20 June, 2011: The majority of jobseekers want to work abroad, according to a survey conducted by JobStreet.com. Of the 700 over respondents, 17% are junior executives, 40% are senior executives, 29% are managers and 16% senior managers.

87% of those polled reported interest in working abroad. However, their level of seriousness in wanting to work abroad varies. A little under a third of the group is already actively seeking opportunities overseas. 30% are passively looking while another 30% are still considering the pros and cons of employment abroad.

The main reason for wanting to work abroad is to earn more money (42%), for career growth (24%), children’s education (13%), for travel opportunities (9%) and to follow their spouse abroad (3%) with the remaining citing other reasons for wanting to work abroad. This data confirms what the media has been revealing about brain drain in recent years as money, career growth and children’s education rank the highest in the survey.



Employees were also asked on their favourite destination for work and most are keen to work in Australia (24%) followed by Singapore (16%), UK (15%) and US (10%). About 8% were keen on China/Korea/Japan and 7% in New Zealand.  Amongst senior managers however, the favourite destination is Singapore.

For their method of getting a job, the majority prefered to use recruitment firms and head hunting agencies while going through referrals and advertisement from newspaper and online sites each garnered about 17% of the votes.

When respondents were asked what would be the reason keeping them home if they are not interested in working abroad, half of the respondents cite family as the main reason. Only 2.4% said that they are staying here to contribute to national interest.

The survey findings were similar for both male and female respondents. About 700 employees participated in the survey, of which 60% were male and the rest female. The survey was carried out in May 2011 to seek the view of employees on their thoughts on working abroad.