Majority of the unemployed are young men: BPS

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The level of unemployment at the beginning of the second half of this year reached 8 million people, or 8.2 percent of the country's 97.6 million labor force, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said in its latest quarterly survey released on Monday.

Although the unemployment figure may seem low, BPS acknowledged that the new data was "worrying" because 61 percent of the unemployed were young men in the age range 15 to 24. This age group is also liable to become involved in criminal activity.

The bureau said that 34.5 percent of the unemployed were young men who were senior high school graduates.

Marta, a senior high school graduate still looking for a job, said that he was depressed by the current economic situation in the country, as employment even as a road cleaner was difficult to obtain.

"Six years ago, when I had just graduated from high school, I was expecting to get a job to help my impoverished family. But until now it has just been a pipe dream," said Marta, who lives in Pondok Aren, Tangerang.

Marta's family could not afford to send him to college, as his father was only a retired low-ranking government employee.

As unemployed people in Indonesia are not supported by government social welfare, Marta decided to make a living as a part-time ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver in his neighborhood, as he still is.

"I have to do something in order to survive. I don't expect much for my future; all I can think of is whether I will eat or not tomorrow. I haven't given up hope of getting a proper job though," he said.

The BPS survey sampled 18,132 households across the country. Due to security and budgetary concerns, the survey excluded the provinces of Aceh, Maluku and Papua.

BPS unemployment data refers to open unemployment, which the bureau defines as the percentage of people categorized as part of the labor force who have no job and are actively seeking work.

The labor force is defined by BPS as, "Persons aged 15 years and over who, in the previous week, were working, temporarily absent from work but with a job, plus those who did not have work and were looking for work."

The survey was aimed at establishing an early warning system for the government to monitor the country's labor problems.

Head of the labor evaluation and statistical section at BPS Yunita Rusanti said that the latest was the first quarterly survey published, after it was stopped in 1994.

"The survey was restarted on a recommendation from the International Monetary Fund, which requires the country to keep itself regularly updated on labor problems," said Yunita.

After 1994 BPS produced the survey only once per year.

Independent experts, however, estimated the country's unemployment at more than 40 million by including the huge amount of disguised unemployment, defined as the number of people in the labor force working less than 35 hours per week.

An unemployment rate of 8 percent is seen as unrealistic because that would mean it was lower than the rate in some European countries. It does not reflect the true extent of unemployment in Indonesia.

Economists have said the ongoing economic and political crisis, which hit the country in the late 1990s, has caused many companies to completely shut down or downsize, forcing many people out of work.

They said that to absorb the huge number of job seekers, the country's economy had to grow at precrisis levels, of around 6 percent to 7 percent per year. The government has planned for economic growth of only 4 percent this year.