Govt just about to throw in towel on unemployment

Govt just about to throw in towel on unemployment

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government acknowledged on Friday it was desperately
trying to get a handle on the country's rising unemployment
problem, saying it was simply running out of ideas to create jobs
for the three million new job seekers annually and the 40 million
currently jobless.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said
only 1.6 million job vacancies are available every year
countrywide.

He admitted the government has no new or special strategies to
tackle unemployment which rose to an astronomical 40 million
people this year, except to send workers abroad and further
explore domestic job opportunities in strategic sectors, like
agroindustry, fishery and tourism.

"The government will continue focusing on two main strategies:
sending more maids overseas and maximizing domestic sectors to
create more vacancies," Jacob told reporters in Jakarta.

However, he was unable say what the government had planned to
encourage the domestic sectors to create new jobs.

It certainly requires huge fresh money for the domestic
sectors to survive or develop amid the prolonged economic crisis,
and it is impossible to expect more foreign assistance due the
global recession following the September terrorist attacks on the
United States.

Experts said that to provide jobs for three million people
annually, Indonesia must increase its economic growth from 3.5
percent to seven percent. However, the government has forecast
that next year's economic growth will be four percent.

Jacob claimed the human labor exports are likely still the
best alternative to reducing unemployment, saying overseas
markets could recruit between three and four million workers
every year.

Most of about 460,000 Indonesians currently employed in other
countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and other
Middle Eastern nations, are unskilled workers, mostly serving as
maids. However, they often have to risk human rights abuses by
their employers, including physical and sexual assaults.

In addition they are often recruited by unscrupulous agents
here who charge them exorbitant amounts of money as well as being
regularly "asked" to pay certain "fees" to airport officials and
others as they depart or return from overseas work assignments.
All of these issues are obvious hindrances to encouraging workers
to go overseas.

Jacob admitted that many Indonesians were not eligible for
professional employment overseas due to their inadequate skills,
and that the quality of Indonesian workers still lagged behind
those from other ASEAN countries, particularly the Philippines.

The minister hopes a new labor bill, currently being
deliberated at the House of Representatives, will give stronger
legal protection to Indonesian workers overseas.

Jacob criticized the current education system for failing to
provide adequate vocational skills for students to work after
finishing their studies.

He also called on all relevant authorities to further empower
the informal business sectors, including street vendors, which he
said could absorb 65 percent of the country's work force.

He slammed the regency and provincial administrations over
their moves to crack down on street vendors who were often blamed
for causing disorder and disturbance in their cities.

"I don't agree with this. Don't evict them. The regional
administrations should have provided special places for them to
open stalls instead of just throwing them out," he said.

"We need to support them because they are able to make a
living without government assistance," Jacob added.