Unemployment remains big problem in E. Timor

DILI (JP): Unemployment remains a headache for many East Timorese as their education level is improving but the local job market is unable to absorb the increasingly qualified workforce, a local official says.

Chief of the East Timor provincial manpower office Ign. Mujihartono said last week that unemployment in the territory of 800,000 people is so serious a national effort would be needed to solve it.

In an interview with The Jakarta Post, Mujihartono said there was a common misperception that labor affairs was solely the responsibility of his office.

"In fact, other agencies such those overseeing industry, plantations, trade, agriculture and fisheries should also think of ways to create jobs for the East Timorese," he said.

The manpower office's main job, he said, is to provide vocational training for job seekers and channel them to the available openings.

Two thousand five hundred people are currently on the manpower office's list of job seekers, down from 18,000 in 1995. Last year, 3,000 of them entered the civil service and another 500 were recruited by various manpower suppliers.

The central government in Jakarta has also helped relieve the unemployment predicament in East Timor. Over the past year 2,025 East Timorese have been provided with jobs in other provinces.

Observers believe that the bulk of East Timorese jobless people have yet to report to the manpower office for help.

Mujihartono reckoned that about 4,000 people entered the job market every year.

He hailed the recent increase in the minimum daily wage in East Timor. Under the policy, East Timorese workers' monthly wage will average Rp 138,000 (US$59) from April, up from Rp 126,000.

Mujihartono said that the meager raise was because of local employers' limited financial capabilities.

"The pay hike is expected to encourage local workers to work harder," he said.

Unemployment is a delicate issue in the former Portuguese colony, which is among Indonesia's poorest provinces.

Academics have theorized that joblessness is adding fuel to the sociopolitical tension in the area that has often erupted into unrest.

Last year, a series of ethnic and religious riots were triggered by conflicts between Bugis and local traders. Many key positions in the local administration go to migrants. (33)