Job opportunities web site launched

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As part of its efforts to reduce unemployment, the government introduced on Wednesday a national website offering information about job vacancies and a nationwide job-seeker database.

Officially launched by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, www.infokerja.web.id provides information about vacancies in companies and factories owned by both the government and the private sector.

With the website, the government also wants to facilitate the recruitment process for both companies and jobseekers.

"We hope this will be a breakthrough and hope that each province will have its own website for job opportunities in the next few months," Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said after the launch.

He said the online service would simplify the recruitment process as people could apply online.

Reducing the unemployment rate is one of the major problems the country faces as it struggles to fully recover from the economic crisis that has been beleaguering the country since 1997.

According to Central Statistics Agency (BPS) head Soedarti Surbakti, the number of unemployed in Indonesia is around nine million people.

"This is the number of jobseekers and those who work fewer than three hours per day," said Soedarti, adding that Indonesia had 100 million people of productive age.

However, she said, there were different perceptions about the definition of unemployment. Some considered those who work less than 36 hours a week as jobless.

"For us, we say that those working in the formal sector have 42 working hours per week, so those working in the informal sector could be more or less than that number," Soedarti said.

Jacob insisted, however, that the number of unemployed people was not as high as BPS had disclosed due to differing definitions of joblessness.

"I do not believe in the figure that BPS disclosed; I think it is less than that," the minister said without revealing his estimate.

The ministry has also worked together with several organizations to open up more websites for job opportunities.

With the Indonesia Accountants Foundation (YAI), the ministry launched www.yai.ac.id, while the Karawang municipality operates www.disnakerkarawang.go.id, which provides information about job opportunities in the area.

"We hope that more municipalities will follow Karawang's example in providing a website service," Jacob added.