Are the Malaysian students “unskilled” and “unaware”?

Since the financial crisis of 1998, graduate unemployment problem has been persistent and the lack of generic skills, i.e. “unskilled”, has been pointed out as one of the causes.However, the “unskilled” alone could not lead to the persistence of graduate unemployment.The co-existence of “unskilled” and “unaware” could be the cause. This paper aims to estimate the existence of “unskilled and unaware” phenomena using a sample of Malaysian students. Results reveal that the students significantly over-perceived their level of generic skills, as compared to employer’s evaluations.This indicates that the students are “unaware” of their unskilled. Results also reveal that this “unaware” is significantly related to the unskilled students. The unskilled students are more likely to be unaware. Thus, the phenomena of “unskilled and unaware” exist among the Malaysian students. The unskilled students are simply not aware until they enter into the labour market and suffer unemployment.Since a new group of “unskilled and unaware” students enters into labour market every year, this leads to the persistence of graduate unemployment in Malaysia.