Educated Workers: After Getting a Job, Still Searching for Work

IN THE PAST, education was the primary route out of poverty. Parents would sell gold, borrow from neighbours, and work overtime for years—not because there were no other options, but because they believed there was one thing that could break the cycle of poverty. They believed a diploma could be a ticket out of all worldly hardships. Their aspiration was for their children not to have to do manual labour like they did. So that there would be a ladder to climb. And for several decades, that promise still seemed reasonable. Until now, one must ask: does education still have the leverage to escape fears of the future and poverty? Nowadays, many of those who have gone to university are working. Even though they have jobs, they are still applying for other jobs. Yes, side jobs. Not because of laziness, not because of choosing the wrong major, not because of lack of effort—but because one job alone turns out not to be enough for a decent living. The Katadata Insight Center (KIC) in its Katadata Indonesia Middle Class Insight (KIMCI) report for Q4 2025 to Q1 2026 notes that out of 1,000 middle-class respondents in Indonesia, 46.3% have side jobs outside their main employment. Nearly half of them. Actually, this is not a symptom of ambition or a psychological issue where someone cannot tolerate working under pressure. Clearly, this is a necessary defence mechanism for workers to patch financial gaps. Dominant survival, not moving forward. If wages or salaries are insufficient, it is very human to want to seek additional income. The vulnerable poor group has actually swelled from 54.97 million to 67.69 million people in the same period. This is not a trend that can be read as growth that is “in process.” This is a structural movement that has been ongoing for five consecutive years, and its direction is consistently downward. What makes this phenomenon difficult to discuss is that it is easy to appear as if one is blaming someone. We focus on the weak generation. Their wrong choices. However, the data we see now does not speak about individuals. The data speaks about patterns. And this pattern is too massive to be read as personal failure. To understand why this is happening systematically, we need to look at how the theory behind “education as a ladder” actually works—and where it starts to crack. Economist Gary Becker (1964) formulated that investment in education can indeed increase individual productivity, and the market will reward that productivity with higher wages.