Govt warned of unemployment

CIREBON: The number of jobless Indonesians has increased steadily in the past few years and has reached an alarming level due to deteriorating economic conditions, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a seminar organized by the Solidarity of Unemployed Indonesians in Cirebon, West Java on Tuesday, Jacob said that more than 36 million people nationwide were currently jobless.

"The government has a difficulty in dealing with the jobless," said Jacob, adding that his ministry was currently soliciting input from various quarters on solutions to the unemployment problem.

The minister also expressed concerns over the low quality of the country's human resources.

The latest data, issued in 2000, showed that 60 percent of the country's workforce were elementary graduates, 16 percent junior high school graduates, 19 percent senior high school graduates while only 4.6 percent had an education higher than senior high school. -- Antara