By Daniel John Jambun
President Change Advocate Movement Sabah (CAMOS)
KOTA KINABALU: The State Government’s proud declaration that Sabah’s unemployment rate has fallen to 6.2% in Q2 2025 sounds like a victory headline — but Sabahans have a right to ask: is this genuine progress or just statistical cosmetics?
The figure, announced by Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Datuk Phoong Jin Zhe, comes without clear answers to pressing questions:
What exact formula and criteria were used to calculate the unemployment rate?
Are part-time, seasonal, and underemployed workers counted as “fully employed”?
Were jobs from proposed but not yet commenced investment projects wrongly included in the count?
How much of the so-called improvement is built on temporary contracts that vanish after events or short-term projects end?
If Sabah’s unemployment rate is truly down, why are thousands of graduates still sending dozens of job applications with no reply? Why are our brightest young people still migrating to the Peninsula or overseas for work? If this is “progress,” why can’t Sabahans feel it in their wallets and their daily lives?
If the government is confident in the 6.2% figure, let them open the books to independent economists, the statistics department, and public scrutiny. Otherwise, this number will remain nothing more than a self-serving political prop.
More critically, if Sabah is to truly attract and sustain investment, the government must publish clear, verifiable figures on the readiness of industrial infrastructure and utilities — not vague promises. The public deserves to know:
What percentage of industrial zones have reliable power supply and uninterrupted water service?
What is the real shipping cost index for Sabah compared to regional competitors?
How competitive are our port handling times and administrative processing compared to neighbouring economies?
How many areas still face water shortages that disrupt both communities and investors?
What steps are being taken to overcome federal policies that are unfriendly to Sabah’s industrial and international investment climate?
Investors are not fooled by slogans. Many have already walked away from Sabah after discovering that our ports are congested, our electricity supply is unreliable, and our water shortages can halt factory operations for days.
Without this hard data, investor confidence will remain shaky — and any claim of economic recovery will ring hollow. Sabah doesn’t need political theatre dressed up as economic success. We need jobs that last, infrastructure that works, and a government brave enough to face the truth instead of hiding behind cherry-picked numbers.
Until then, 6.2% is just a number — and the people of Sabah are still paying the price for a broken system.
