Unemployment to 'rise by 2%'

Unemployment to 'rise by 2%'

JAKARTA: Indonesia's jobless rate is expected to rise by up to two percent in 2006 from the current 10.19 percent, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Erman Suparno said on Sunday.

He said an estimated economic growth of around 5.7 percent this year has not provided enough jobs, the Antara news agency reported.

Speaking in Garut, West Java, Erman said 10.8 million of the country's 106 million-strong workforce in 2005 were unemployed. Another 29.6 million worked less than 40 hours a week.

About 55 percent of the workforce only had primary school education and only five percent had university or other higher education, he added. --AFP