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