KOTA BARU: The Manpower Department has set a target of producing more than 40,000 skilled workers annually by 2015, its director-general, Romli Hassan said here yesterday.

He said employment was expected to register an annual average growth of 1.9 per cent and 12 million workers were required in 2010, requiring the graduation of more people from the training institutes under the department.

Romli said that graduates from the institutes were easily employed in industries because the institutes emphasised the assimilation of soft skills in students. -- Bernama