With ongoing issues on youth employability in many developing and transitional labour markets of Gen Z, career initiation is fraught with increasing uncertainties. Having better educational qualifications has not enabled many young people to reap the benefits of these qualifications and obtain stable, fulfilling jobs; thus, it can be said that employability is not entirely a function of individual talent and qualifications. The paper provides a conceptual model that reflects employability and career outcomes of Gen Z, calibrated against an empirically validated employability model by Dasan in 2017. Drawing on Human Capital Theory, Employability Theory, and Career Development Theory, this study examines how human resource management practices relate to self-efficacy in career decisions and sector-specific job contexts. The corporate context in which these challenges are viewed is captured from the Sabah Statistical Yearbook 2024, released in Sabah, Malaysia. The implication is that while focusing solely on employability characteristics is incomplete, it is also the dynamics of HRM systems and the interplay between the public and private sectors that regulate the extent of career choices available to youth and the way that they secure quality employment. The proposed framework thus connects youth employability problems to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including Goals 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, 1: No Poverty, and 10: Reduced Inequality. It will further advance HRM and employability studies on youth unemployment as a systemic and institutional issue rather than merely the individual or macroeconomic issue, while providing strong theoretical grounds for future empirical investigations.