Yogyakarta aim to give jobs to degree holders

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Getting a job was the only thing Dwi Krisdianto wished and prayed for after he graduated from Semarang's Diponegoro University school of law in 2001.

The native of Srigading village in Bantul, Yogyakarta sent countless application letters, but did not get any reply.

"I'm tired of applying for work but if I don't try, what will I do," the 29-year-old told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He said that after graduation, he tried to find work in Semarang for four months but when he ran out of money and there was no work in sight, he had to go back to Yogyakarta.

Two years on, he decided to run a poultry business but it went bankrupt after all the chickens died of bird flu. Now, Dwi still has no job.

"I wish the government could create jobs so I can work, or offer unemployed people like me a soft loan to start a business," he said.

Yunanto, 28, is a graduate of a reputable private university in Yogyakarta. After graduating in late 2003, he has applied for many jobs but with no result.

"I spent a lot of money to study, now that I've graduated, it's so hard to find work. Even to work in a factory I have to pay, especially to become a civil servant, you have to pay millions. How can poor people like me get that much money," he complained.

Popularly known across the country as a university city, Yogyakarta has the second highest unemployment rate among university graduates after Jakarta.

Currently, 232,000 out of the 700,000 people in the province who are unemployed have university degrees or diplomas.

"The high rate of unemployment among university graduates here causes serious concern since it's among the highest in the country," said the Yogyakarta provincial secretary Bambang Susanto Priohadi.

In Jakarta, he said, the number of educated but unemployed people reached around 500,000. But for Yogyakarta, a province of only just over three million people, the figure is very high. Jakarta is a city of over 10 million people. "Compared to other big cities, it's a very high rate," Bambang said.

Many of the unemployed, he said, came from universities in Yogyakarta, although not all of them were originally from the province. Many of the unemployed people came from other provinces but opted to stay on in the city, he added.

"Although they've graduated, they have not gone back to their hometowns and are still staying here, looking for work," Bambang said.

In order to cope with the problem, he said the local government was currently inviting investors to develop several areas like Bantul, Kulonprogro and Sleman regencies.

"Currently, several investors have shown an interest to invest and in the coming two years, we hope to lower the unemployment rate among degree-holders by 30 percent," Bambang said.