Informal sector survives despite uncertainty
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For Tholib, 51, who sells used goods at the Jatinegara flea market in East Jakarta, what people call "income predictability" is but a distant dream.
"I simply cannot predict my day-to-day income. It depends on many things, like the amount of money I have, the quality of the used goods I sell, the number of visitors, and ... also, bad weather," he said.
Tholib hates the rain because when it rains, he must cover up his wares with a plastic sheet.
"The rain is always annoying. There's lots of jobs to do, while my takings drop sharply due to a lack of customers," he complained.
Tholib revealed that he could sell the various goods he bought for Rp 25,000 at a slight markup of between Rp 30,000 and 40,000.
"However, I might only earn Rp 5,000 on a rainy day or when there are only a few customers," he complained.
Tholib has been working as a used goods vendor for 12 years. Previously, he ran a repair shop but it went bankrupt.
"It's almost impossible for me to look for a better occupation as most of these require a lot of money as capital. But, where can I get the money with the economic crisis?" he asked.
The devastating impact of the economic crisis, which first hit the country in 1997, is still being felt by many people. It has forced many people who lost their jobs following massive layoffs in the formal sector to enter the informal sector, where not much capital is required.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has reported that out of the 89.7 million people employed in Indonesia, some 62 percent work in the informal sector, or about 55.6 million people.
Like Tholib, Bambang, 30, who works as a meat ball soup vendor in the National Monument Park (Monas) in Central Jakarta expressed concerns about the unpredictability of his earnings.
"If (all the meat balls) are sold out, I can get Rp 90,000 for the day. But, that's very rare. Sometimes, I only manage to take in Rp 10,000 after hawking the soup all the day long here," said Bambang, a resident of Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.
Bambang revealed that his future had become even more uncertain following the Central Jakarta mayoralty's plan to relocate vendors from Monas.
"An official said that only vendors who have Jakarta identity cards would be allowed to rent a stall. This means that the hundreds of other vendors who have no Jakarta ID cards will be kicked out in the cold," he said.
Bambang criticized the Jakarta administration, saying it should support the informal sector instead of constantly hounding vendors.
According to Central Jakarta mayoralty records, there are more than 600 vendors operating in the Monas area, but Bambang said that there were actually more than 2,000 vendors making a living there, with most of them lacking Jakarta ID cards.