Government vows to speed up labor intensive projects
JAKARTA (JP): The government said yesterday it would speed up the implementation of projects designed to provide work for millions of people left jobless by the recession.
These labor-intensive projects must be carried out immediately in order to provide these people with income, Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief told reporters after meeting President Soeharto at the latter's Jl. Cendana residence.
"The President is giving his serious attention to the unemployment problem," Latief said. "These people (who have been laid off), will run out of money in three to six months time."
The government has allocated Rp 1.8 trillion ($180 million) of its 1998/1999 budget to finance these projects and the World Bank, whose president James D. Wolfensohn was in Jakarta Wednesday, has pledged a further $1 billion to the government to resolve the unemployment problem.
Some of the projects have already been initiated in Jakarta and other big cities. They include the clearing of Jakarta's filthy drainage system, a project involving thousands of mostly unskilled workers and former construction laborers.
Latief said some 1.5 million blue-collar workers who recently lost their jobs would be given priority in the recruitment for these projects.
He said the situation was not likely to improve in the next 12 months. "The unemployment rate will worsen because this year our economy will have zero growth," he said.
Latief estimated that about 8.5 million people will be out of work by the end of this year.
This figure consists of 2.7 million fresh high school graduates who are joining the labor market for the first time, 4.5 million who were already unemployed, and between 1 million and 1.5 million people who will be laid off this year.
The Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union said as many as 13 million people could lose their jobs this year.
Figures
Labor leaders have said the government's figures conceal the true extent of the problem, because employment is officially defined as working at least one hour a week.
They believe that underemployment, which includes people whose jobs do not provide sufficient income, accounted for 40 percent of Indonesia's nearly 90 million workforce even in normal times.
Latief said workers in the construction, textile and garment, and shoes sectors were particularly vulnerable to unemployment. "This year's unemployment crisis has been very shocking."
Separately, a senior Ministry of Manpower official suggested that those who have been recently laid off should consider working abroad, where the chances of finding jobs were higher.
Ministry spokesman Sriharto Brodjodarono said there was still strong demand for construction and plantation workers in countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
The ministry, Sriharto said, would assist anyone interested in contacting local manpower exporting agencies.
The ministry estimates that Indonesia could send 2.5 million workers abroad in the Seventh Five Year Plan which begins in April 1999. This is double the number sent in the current Sixth Five Year Plan.
Malaysia alone could provide 1.2 million jobs for Indonesian workers, Middle East countries another 600,000, and other Asia- Pacific countries 700,000, he said.
Between 1993 and 1997, Indonesia sent nearly 1 million workers abroad. They sent remittances amounting to $2.35 billion during that time, Sriharto said. (prb/09)