Unemployment among the educated alarms Moerdiono

Unemployment among the educated alarms Moerdiono

JAKARTA (JP): Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono expressed
alarm at the high unemployment rate among college graduates,
saying that joblessness among the educated is a serious problem.

Addressing a gathering of Ministry of Education and Culture
officials yesterday, he said college graduates find it difficult
to find employment because they generally loath menial jobs.

They tend to refuse jobs they consider menial although the
fields are related to the expertise they obtained at school, he
said.

"People with higher educational backgrounds would rather wait
for years for white-collar jobs," Moerdiono told the 200
participants of a meeting on educational and cultural matters.

The number of job opportunities available to college graduates
is limited, with potential employers stricter than ever about
qualifications, he said.

People holding high school diplomas can find employment more
easily because they have lower expectations and fewer choices,
Moerdiono said.

According to data available at the education and culture
ministry, an estimated 200,000 of the some one million graduates
that enter the job market every year cannot find employment.

In 25 years to come, Indonesia will have about six million
unemployed college graduates if employment grows at the current
rate, Minister of Education and Culture Minister Wardiman
Djojonegoro said yesterday.

The meeting, which was also attended by officials from other
ministries and entrepreneurs, aimed at pooling ideas to assist in
drafting the 1998-2003 state policy guidelines.

Moerdiono warned that well-educated unemployed people may be
involved in "unproductive activities".

"This is a waste of the nation's human resources," he said.

He suggested that college graduates develop the
entrepreneurial spirit and create jobs for themselves.

"Encouraging creativity and job creation are a challenge that
our education system should address," he said. "Schools should
encourage students to develop their creativity and initiative."

To encourage people to develop entrepreneurship, the
government has offered credit facilities for small-scale
businesses, he said.

Data released by the Ministry of Manpower in 1994 show that 29
million Indonesian aged 15 years and above were unemployed in
1991. Most of the unemployed were people with junior high school
educations who lived in rural areas. (31)