20 jobseekers collapse

20 jobseekers collapse

BOGOR: At least eight job seekers collapsed due to lack of
oxygen in a building that was overcrowded by some 1,000 people,
who wanted to become civil servants at the regency administration
on Tuesday.

Three other people were also slightly injured.

On the first day of the one-week recruitment, about 4,000
jobseekers flocked the administration's Serba Guna building
compound, including 1,000 jobseekers who were already inside the
hall.

The administration needed about 400 new employees.

Upon seeing the huge number of applicants that came, a member
of the recruitment committee called upon them to go home and come
back later as there was still plenty of time to submit their
applications.

"The recruitment is from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7. We will also open
on Saturday and Sunday, but not on Friday," the officer
announced.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics the level of
unemployment at the beginning of the second half of this year has
reached 8 million people, or 8.2 percent of the country's 97.6
million labour force. Sixty-one percent are between 15 years old
and 24 years old. --JP