Pengangguran dalam kalangan Tenaga Kerja Semasa Wabak COVID-19

Wabak COVID-19 yang melanda Malaysia dan dunia telah memberi impak yang besar kepada sistem politik, ekonomi, sosial, kesihatan, dan pendidikan negara. Ekoran daripada wabak yang berlaku, kerajaan Malaysia telah mengumumkan pelaksanaan Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) kepada rakyat bermula 18 Mac 2020 sekaligus memberi impak terhadap sektor pekerjaan. Hal ini kerana, banyak sektor pekerjaan yang terpaksa menghentikan operasi serta merta dalam usaha mengekang penularan wabak COVID-19 daripada terus menular dalam masyarakat. Bahkan, penutupan perniagaan semasa PKP telah menyebabkan banyak syarikat tidak dapat menampung kos perbelanjaan termasuklah gaji pekerja hingga menyebabkan syarikat terpaksa membuang pekerja. Natijahnya berlaku kenaikan kadar pengangguran pada suku tahun pertama iaitu 3.9 peratus berbanding 3.3 peratus pada tahun 2019 (laporan Statistik Tenaga Buruh, 2020). Kajian ini menggunakan metod kajian perpustakaan dengan meninjau sorotan literatur bagi mengenal pasti impak COVID-19 terhadap tenaga kerja, model dan faktor yang mempengaruhi kobolehdapatan pekerjaan semasa wabak COVID-19 dalam mengatasi masalah pengangguran. Seterusnya dapatan dan perbincangan utama tertumpu kepada penerokaan faktor yang mempengaruhi kebolehdapatan kerja semasa COVID-19 seperti program kerjaya, insentif untuk menjana pendapatan dan inisiatif yang dilakukan oleh pihak kerajaan untuk membantu sektor pekerjaan serta kemahiran tenaga kerja yang sesuai dengan keperluan masakini

Entrepreneurial characteristics of indigenous housing developers: the case of Malaysia

Since the colonisation era, the immigrants from mainland China (and now their descendents) dominate the Malaysian housing industry. Their high entrepreneurial ethics stimulated early venture in all economic sectors to become dominant in business. To increase the participation of indigenous entrepreneurs in economic activities, Malaysia has practiced its own version of the affirmative policy since the 1970s which is known as National Economic Policy (NEP). Unlike other economic sectors such as construction, manufacturing and agricultural, the government has not provided special assistance (other than those that are generic in nature) for the indigenous populace to penetrate and thrive in housing development. As a consequence, their participation in this sector is conspicuous by their absence. A study was conducted to look into the involvement of indigenous housing developers in housing industry. Data was collected through postal questionnaires followed by face-to-face interviews. The discussion on the data analysis is presented together with interview findings.indigenous housing developer, housing development industry, entrepreneur characteristic

International Markets: Malaysian Construction Contractors and the Stage Theory

Reduced demand for services, lack of finances for projects and idle resources at homehave resulted in loss of business for Malaysian construction contractors. Among the optionsthat are explored in this paper is internationalisation of services to help the contractorsgainfully employ their resources and diversify their markets. Integration of worldmarkets, faster transportation and improved means of communication have made it possiblefor contractors to undertake work in international markets. It was found that contractorswere motivated to internationalise by need to make the firm a viable one byconsidering the long-term profitability. Reputation and size of the firm were found to befactors that help contractors in winning contracts overseas. Most non-exporters were concernedwith provision of market intelligence and export credit finance. It was found thatproviding relevant market information, accessible to both exporter and non-exporters, canhelp firms make informed decisions. Any assistance provided should match the firm to thestage the firm has reached in exportin

THE USE OF SOCIAL NETWORK THEORY ON ENTREPRENEUR’S LINKAGES DEVELOPMENT

To embark on any housing project, a developer needs to have support from various parties. The housing and construction industries are interrelated; they are in a relationship where construction plays a major part in the development process. Housing developers need to have strong support from the contractor, consultant, and suppliers (CCS) in completing their project. Studying the CCS selection methods can enhance the knowledge on the application of the social network theory (SNT) in the housing industry. Questionnaires were posted to 600 private housing developers (PHDs) and 54 were returned. Findings conclude that social factors were given mediate priority in consultant and contractor selection but non-social factors were more dominant in material supplier’s selection. Before start-up, PHDs get more advice from their strong ties (family/relatives/close friends) in selecting the most suitable CCS; while at the start-up and later stage, PHDs get more advice from weak ties (individual/s from the same industry and their acquaintances). PHDs place their personal trust more on the strong ties providing information related to CCS.Social Network Theory (SNT); housing developers; consultant; contractor; and supplier

Polymer Retention during Flow of Polymer Solutions through Porous Media

Polymer solution flow and retention through porous media is of interest to many applications in the oil industry such as drilling, water shut-off and enhanced oil recovery. Operators of mature oil and gas fields are faced with the problem of excessive water production (EWP), which can cause a premature abandonment of some oil and gas wells. It has been found that the injection of high molecular weight polymer solutions through the pay zones of the oil and gas wells would induce a sharp decrease of the water production without affecting the oil and gas production. This effect is called disproportionate permeability reduction (DPR) and the polymer solutions inducing such an effect are called relative permeability modifiers (RPM). Hence, the DPR effect has been utilized in the water shut-off or conformance control of oil and gas wells suffering from EWP. In spite of the extensive research of the DPR effect, there is still a lack of agreement on the mechanisms controlling such an effect and relatively high percentage failures are observed during conformance control field applications. Polymer retention in porous media has been attributed to mechanisms such as bridging-adsorption, adsorption-entanglement, and flow-induced adsorption. These mechanisms have been proposed to account for the increase in flow resistance during or after the flow of polymer solutions through porous media. The DPR effect has been attributed to effects induced by this retained polymer such as steric and lubrication effects, wettability change, segregated oil and water pathways, and swelling and shrinking of the adsorbed polymer layer. The aim of this study is to add knowledge on the effect of polymer solution flow on polymer retention in porous media. In this study, the rheology of high molecular weight polymer solutions was studied using a cone-and-plate setup. Moreover, the characteristics and the effective hydrodynamic thickness of adsorbed polymer layers on glass from these polymer solutions under static conditions were investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Also, quartz crystal microbalance with the dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) was used to investigate the effect of increasing the flow rate of polymer solutions on the adsorbed amount on silica and gold surfaces. Additionally, the mobility reduction and the residual resistance as a result of polymer solution flow through single glass capillaries, 2D and 3D models of porous media were studied. The implementation of the above techniques was used to relate the microscopic effect of the flow of the polymer solutions to the polymer retention in the porous media. The anti-thixotropic behaviour of the polymer solutions, which can be attributed to the shearinduced formation of micron-size transient entanglement networks (TEN), is expected to play a major role in the polymer retention in porous media. These microscopic structures can adsorb on the solid surfaces if the adsorption energy of the polymer/solid system is sufficient. Also, in porous media in which mechanical entrapment is possible, these structures can be entrapped in the small pores and pore throats. Two new mechanisms for polymer retention are proposed in this study: transient-entanglement networks adsorption (TENA) and transient-entanglement networks entrapment (TENE). The TENA is the retention mechanism of the TEN structures in flow systems in which mechanical entrapment is not possible provided that the adsorption energy is sufficient. If mechanical entrapment is possible, then the retention by adsorption and mechanical entrapment are lumped in the TENE mechanism. The results from this study have given a new insight on the flow and retention of polymer solutions through porous media. Hence, it is believed that the improved understanding will improve the design of high molecula

CLANDESTINE MALAYSIAN WORKERS IN JAPAN

Malaysia has played host to foreign workers from near and far over the last two decades, and neighbouring high wage countries, in turn, have played the same role to job-seeking Malaysian

Kegembiraan lestari dalam kalangan pensyarah di Universiti Penyelidikan Malaysia

This research was carried out to investigate the factors that contribute to sustainable happiness among lecturers serving in public universities which categorised as Research Universities. This research included the study of happiness and the relationship between demographic, personality and intentional activities as the independent variables, while the dependent variables cover the aspects of overall happiness, affective and cognitive. The research was conducted in two phases; the first phase was the formation of research instruments. Thus, validity and reliability test were made to validate measurement tools for data collection. The second phase was the survey study conducted among lecturers in Research Universities to obtain data regarding the lecturer‟s happiness. Samples were selected through stratified random sampling method known as proportional stratified sampling. The study involved 645 samples of academic staffs including lecturers, senior lecturers, associate professors and professors. The male respondents involved were 322 (49.9 percent) and female were 323 (50.1 percent). This was a quantitative study which employed descriptive statistics and inferential analyses. The inferential statistics used in this study are Independent Samples t-test, One-way ANOVA, Multiple Regression and Structural Equation Model (SEM) using Partial Least Square analysis through software SmartPLS 2.0 M3. The results showed that 95.5 percent of the lecturers scored high level of happiness, while 4.2 percent of the lecturers scored lower level of happiness. Besides, the findings showed that respondents aged below 30 years, holding lecturer position, single and widows as well as income from RM 3001 to RM 5000 were more prone to experience lower level of happiness. In addition, the results found that Personality traits such as Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness influenced the level of happiness, whereas Intentional Activity throughout the components of cognitive, motivational and religion were significantly influenced sustainable happiness among lecturers. Therefore, the results could be used as a guideline to improve and sustain the level of happiness among academicians in Research University

Financing Low-Cost Housing in Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the methods of housing finance adopted by the low-income earners (both formal and informal) with a view to mitigating the hindrances faced by low-income earners (LIE) when accessing house loan in Malaysia. This was necessitated because low-income house-buyers faced severe problems in gaining access to credit at affordable rates from private banking institutions. Hence, this paper presents the part-findings of an ongoing study that reveals the various methods of financing low-cost housing (LCH) as adopted by LIE in Malaysia. To achieve this, data were collected via in-depth interviews and validated via secondary sources. Thematic analysis was adopted for the qualitative research and 3 themes (sources of LCH finance, encumbrances faced by LIE, and ways to mitigate) were generated. Four states and one territory in Malaysia were covered. The study categorised the sources of LCH financing into two (private and public sector credit institutions). From the findings, ineligibility, down payment, hidden charges and reluctance by banks to lend to LIE were identified by the participants as the major challenges of LCH finance facing the LIE in Malaysia. The supervisory role expected from Bank Negara Malaysia should be resuscitated with a view to ensuring that mortgage institutions total compliance to the mandate given to them in respect of house loan to LIE is accomplished. Also, 2011 Malaysian National Housing Policy should be fully implemented and monitored across the country by the appropriate agencies, among others were recommended

Performance of construction projects: Perception of owners in Palestine

Management of construction projects in Palestine has faced many problems due to various reasons, such as political uncertainty, scarcity of materials and equipment, and lack of regulation. The performance of construction projects in the Gaza Strip has been a source of concern for contracting parties. This paper presents the findings of a questionnaire survey conducted on the main factors affecting the performance of construction projects in the Gaza Strip. 25 questionnaires were randomly distributed to owners and 17 questionnaires were received (68% respondent rate). Sixty three factors were identified, categorized into ten groups, evaluated and ranked from the owners' perspectives. The most important factors which affect the performance of construction projects were average delay because of closures and materials shortage, availability of resources as planned through project duration, leadership skills of project managers, escalation of material prices, availability of personnel with high experience and qualification, and quality of equipments and raw materials in project. Innovation and learning was the highest ranked group according to the respondents. It is recommended that a new contract awarding approach by giving less weight to prices and more weight to the capabilities and past performance of contractors should be adopted. It is necessary to establish proper industry regulations and appropriate mechanism for proper contractors' enforcement. Owners are recommended to facilitate payment to contractors in order to overcome delay, disputes and claims