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