Budget 2027 Should Prioritise High-quality Jobs To Boost Disposable Income
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- The government has been urged to focus on creating high-quality, high-impact job opportunities through Budget 2027 to increase the people’s disposable income.
Prof Dr Mohd Abdullah Jusoh, of the Department of Logistics Management and Business Administration, Faculty of Defence Studies and Management, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM), said economic stimulus measures should shift towards empowering the workforce with skills that would enable them to become self-reliant and earn higher incomes.
He said financial assistance schemes such as Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR) and Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) are effective in easing the people’s financial burden and providing an immediate economic boost, but a long-term strategy requires the development of new economic engines.
“Rather than merely providing aid, it is better to create new job opportunities for them so they can stand on their own feet,” he said when appearing as a guest on the Malaysia Petang Ini programme produced by Bernama TV here today.
Commenting on the national economic outlook, Mohd Abdullah said Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of six per cent in the second quarter of 2026 reflected an encouraging performance compared with World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates of between 2.5 and three per cent.
However, he stressed that aggregate economic growth must be balanced with efforts to ensure that the resulting prosperity directly benefits households through higher wages and stronger purchasing power.
On the national inflation rate of 1.8 per cent, he described government interventions as effective in preventing the prices of staple food items from rising sharply.
“Price increases for staple foods remain under control, perhaps at around one or 1.5 per cent. While this may not have a drastic impact on consumers generally, any increase still affects the B40 and vulnerable groups,” he said.
Mohd Abdullah also hoped that Budget 2027 would place greater emphasis on the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ecosystem and the gig economy, enabling both to evolve into more sustainable professional career pathways for young people.
He said empowering both the private and public sectors to create job opportunities based on three key elements — growth, sustainability and value addition — is crucial to ensuring the nation’s long-term economic prosperity.
-- BERNAMA