Aceh gets new employment office

BANDA ACEH, Aceh: Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris will officially open the Employment Service for the People of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (ESPNAD) on Monday, according to a press release.

Located at the Vocational Training Center of Banda Aceh, ESPNAD was jointly set up by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the government and began operation on Feb. 7.

More than 9,000 job seekers, including around 1,800 women, registered for job placement with ESPNAD in the first six weeks of the service.

It aims to help those who lost their livelihoods because of the Dec. 26 tsunami find jobs.

"Already almost 400 people have secured either temporary or fixed-term employment in the first weeks and job placement is now becoming a major focus of the program," the ILO said.

Aceh, with a population of 4.2 million, had an estimated 250,000 unemployed people before the disaster. An estimated 600,000 people lost their jobs because of the tsunami. -- JP