Experts call for action to curb unemployment

JAKARTA (JP): Experts are appealing to the government to take concrete measures to stop high unemployment from swelling as a result of the economic crisis.

Sociologists Arief Budiman and Loekman Soetrisno along with population expert Sofian Effendi told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the government should either support the creation of high- employment projects or curb the massive layoffs expected from the paralyzed construction industry and the liquidated banks.

Arief Budiman, a professor of Indonesian studies at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said the government must provide jobs for employees who had lost their jobs due to the long-term economic improvement policy.

He said in foreign countries, for example, the government financed new projects in times of recession to provide jobs for a large number of people.

"But in Indonesia, I think it's difficult for the government to do such things, as a result of the financial shortage due to the monetary crisis," he said.

Loekman Soetrisno said that in providing jobs, the government should aim at satisfying the need for basic needs such as food and not merely the financial gain.

"It's a kind of labor intensive project, where people can work by receiving the minimum regional wages," said Loekman who is head of the Center for Rural and Regional Development Studies at Yogyakarta's Gajah Mada University.

He suggested the government encourage companies to make an agreement with their workers to suspend salary increases in difficult times rather than face the possibility of layoffs.

Sofian Effendi said that the government should issue a special policy aimed at the construction industry to enable them to get soft loans. He also asked the government to guarantee the rollover of private sector debts.

"Such a policy should encourage the private sector to provide adequate jobs for the workers or at least prevent them from closing," said Sofian, who is the assistant to the State Minister of Research and Technology.

The economic crisis has resulted in massive layoffs in several provinces.

East Java Governor Basofi Soedirman said that as many as six to ten thousand workers could face dismissal in the near future.

An official at the All Indonesian Workers Union estimates some 40,000 workers are expected to be dismissed in Central Java in the coming months.

Antara reported that West Java Governor R. Nuriana had revealed in a closed meeting Thursday that as many as 13,310 industrial workers have been laid off in the province since the beginning of the monetary crisis.

The figure is further augmented by 6,854 migrant workers who recently returned to West Java from abroad. (09)