20,000 people jobless in Pekalongan

20,000 people jobless in Pekalongan

PEKALONGAN, Central Java: At least 20,000 people, or some 10
percent of the total population here, are now jobless due to
unfavorable economic conditions, an official has said.

Sofyan Adnan, the head of Pekalongan municipality's manpower
office, said on Wednesday that business in the municipality had
been slow since the economic crisis of 1997.

Due to the poor business environment, firms in Pekalongan were
unable to absorb school and university graduates, he said.

Several major textile and fish processing firms in the
municipality had laid off employees recently to avoid going
bankrupt, thus adding to the city's unemployment problem, he
said.

Adnan hoped that people would not rely only on the government
and formal sector for work, but would instead embrace
entrepreneurship and create job opportunities for themselves and
others.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency shows that Pekalongan
had a population of 263,190 population in 2001. -- Antara