Govt projects unemployment to reach 15%

JAKARTA (JP): Some 13.4 million people, or nearly 15 percent of Indonesia's 90 million-strong workforce, will be unemployed by the end of March next year, Minister of Manpower Theo L. Sambuaga said yesterday.

Theo told reporters after meeting President Soeharto that 4.8 million of those projected to be unemployed would be carried over from last year, while another six million would be young people entering the job market for the first time this year.

Freshly laid off workers will make up the rest, he added.

Theo reported the labor situation to President Soeharto at the Bina Graha presidential office yesterday. He was accompanied by Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita.

Ginandjar said last week that the economic crisis would likely force the economy to contract five percent this year.

The government has said the economy needed to grow at least five percent annually simply to absorb the millions of young people entering the job market each year.

Theo said he would take over the job of coordinating the government's program of providing temporary work to the unemployed.

The task is currently handled by the National Development Planning Board, chaired by Ginandjar.

The government is allocating Rp 598 billion (US$75 million) to finance labor-intensive projects nationwide for unskilled workers who have lost their jobs because of the economic turmoil.

The projects, set up as part of the government's social safety net scheme to cushion the impact of the economic crisis, include cleaning up rivers and gutters.

Theo said his office was also working on a scheme to channel some 65,000 skilled workers to work in rural cooperatives.

A labor expert warned yesterday that the actual unemployment situation could be far worse than indicated by official statistics.

Payaman J. Simanjuntak, an aide to the minister of manpower and a labor economics lecturer, told a seminar yesterday that the official figures concealed what is known as "disguised unemployment".

The term refers particularly to seasonal workers and part-time workers who are officially categorized as employed but not on a sustainable basis to ensure sufficient income.

Government statisticians define employment as at least two hours of work per week.

Payaman said the number of people working less than 35 hours a week was estimated at 31 million, while the number of people working less than 14 hours a week was put at seven million as of the end of last year.

With the economic situation worsening, the disguised unemployment rate will likely increase, he said. (prb/rms)