RI to send more workers abroad

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A lack of job creation at home due to slower-than-expected economic growth has prompted the government to intensify efforts to export workers as a solution to the unemployment problem.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday the government expected to send at least 300,000 skilled and unskilled workers overseas this year in a bid to help reduce the massive unemployment rate at home.

"Our economic growth this year is not expected to be strong enough to reduce the unemployment rate. To offset this, we will try to send more workers overseas," he said at the State Palace.

The government, Alwi said, is preparing to set up a national certification agency to provide workers the skills and certification necessary for finding work overseas.

However, producing skilled migrant workers could be a daunting task. According to data from the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, last year some 55 percent of the country's labor force were elementary school graduates and only 5 percent graduated from high school or university.

Alwi said laid off workers from the manufacturing sector were candidates for the overseas job market because they had experience and job skills.

A recent report from the manpower ministry said 22,647 workers in the formal sector lost their jobs in the first quarter of this year as companies shut down or downsized.

According to the ministry, more than 618,445 workers have been laid off since 2000, contributing to the skyrocketing unemployment figure of about 11.3 million people, or about 10 percent of the total workforce.

The unemployment figure includes this year's fresh batch of graduates from junior high school, high school and university, estimated at about three million.

The government has forecast economic growth this year of 5.5 percent, higher than the 5.13 percent growth of last year. A 1 percent growth in the economy translates into about 400,000 new jobs, meaning 5.5 percent growth will provide about 2.2 million jobs, not enough to cover the new graduates entering the job market.

State Minister for National Development Planning Sri Mulyani Indrawati acknowledged the government might not be able to meet its target of creating three million new jobs this year.

She said the country's economy needed to grow by at least 6.6 percent to reduce the unemployment figure to below 10 percent this year.

During the presidential campaign, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged to create 15 million new jobs during his five-year term, or three million jobs annually. He based this promise on the assumption of annual economic growth of over 6.6 percent.

Because the unemployed in the country do not receive government assistance, observers fear the huge numbers of people who are out of work could turn to crime in order to survive, disturbing national security.