Labor market

From Berita Buana

Companies which advertise in newspapers sometimes offer attractive jobs. The other day a company in the field of finance, property, consultancy, construction, manufacture, trade and tourism needed to fill openings in each of its divisions. In general such companies require personnel with relevant experience of at least one year.

This precludes the employment of those who have just finished school even though they are familiar with the kind of work that is on offer.

Such an attitude on the part of companies is not helpful in reducing unemployment. Problems of unemployment cannot be alleviated if companies invariably demand work experience.

The negative impact is chaos in the world of employment because there is a constant hijacking of manpower among companies.

Educators expect their students will find employment upon finishing school. Many young persons who have finished school wish to be independent and create their own field of work but they often lack initial capital.

I agree with Mr. Probosutedjo of the council of advisors of the Indonesian Indigenous Businessmen Association who wrote in Berita Buana of July 27 that the association is not racist, not against any ethnic group and that it can restrain itself, it is patient but sad to see the injustice in the enjoyment of the yields of development.

Why are new citizens of foreign extraction more relied upon and more entrusted to develop their business, without their mistakes such as collusion, bad debts, markups, etc. being taken into account?

How can one open a business without working capital, and how is it possible to obtain bank credit unless one has goods for collateral? The case is different with "new citizens" as meant by Probosutedjo. They are more trusted by certain officials, whether due to collusion or not, and so can easily obtain capital to open a business.

But for us who have just enough to live on and to send our children to school, we are still haunted by the problem that upon completion of their education, our children experience great difficulty in finding work, especially opening their own business.

A better solution may be if each job seeker were willing to follow additional training provided by a company and to engage themselves to work for the company for a certain number of years. Many companies could make such an arrangement, couldn't they?

Whether such conditions can be realized depend on the authorities and the companies' management boards.

BUDIARTO

Tangerang, West Java