30 Percent of Job Opening at Employment Office Remain Unfilled

(JAKARTA, KOMPAS: 22/08/08) – As many as 4,516,100 of the 9,427,600 people categorized as “ fully unemployed”  as of February 2008 are all High School (SMA), Vocational School (SMK), Academy (diploma programs) or University graduates. The inability of these formal education graduates to adapt to or fulfill job market demands is rapidly becoming the biggest problem in the effort to overcome unemployment.

Ironically, this condition is emerging at a time when the Indonesian economy is growing at its highest level in the past 10 years, that being 6.3 percent. The government must focus more concertedly on improving the competence and skills of the people newly entering the workplace. 

This was one of the points made in the report titled Employment and Social Trends in Indonesia by the International Labor Organization (ILO). The organization’s economist, Kee Keom Kim, said in Jakarta on Thursday (08/21) that as many as 50.3 percent of the unemployed in 2007 had high school or higher level degrees.

"The improvement of the quality of education in the future is a very important task for the government," Kim said.

The 5,660,036 educated unemployed people are young, mostly 15 to 24 years of age. The classification “Fully Unemployed” covers are people who are not gainfully unemployed. While the level of unemployment among the “educated unemployed” (people who meet the educational requirements for work) has been increasing, the number of “Fully Unemployed” people has decreased from the previous level of 10,011,100. 

Improving Levels of Competence

Researcher at the Demographic Institute of the University of Indonesia, Sri Moertiningsih
Adioetomo, said that the government must focus more on improving the competence, skills and expertise of High School, Vocational School and University graduates from the time they are still in the education system.

"The government must focus on developing and guiding the new generation of young people who will be entering the workplace while they are still in school. They have the potential to learn so many things that can improve their competence and skills and better qualify and ready them for the job market,” Moertiningsih said.

On a separate occasion, the Minister of Manpower and Transmigration, Erman
Suparno said that the effort to reduce unemployment must begin at the upstream levels with the revamping and improvement of the education system. Without the improvement of competence from the outset of education, it will be impossible to curtail the stream of unemployed people. According to Erman, the Department of Manpower and Transmigration (Depnakertrans), the Department of National Education, and the Board of Trade and Industry, have been cooperating since February 13, 2007, to synchronize the understanding of the job market’s demands with the world of education.

This cooperation covers three things: the understanding of the industrial relationship between workers and businessmen; the job market demands; and familiarity with employment regulations.

"The minimal competence and skill levels among graduates of formal education have been seen at the job fairs being held frequently since 2006. Although the number of applicants is burgeoning, nearly 30 percent of the existing jobs remain unfilled because they applicants do not fulfill the requirements set out by employers. This means that job opportunities are there, but the competence of applicants does not meet the requirement,” Erman said.

The Department of Manpower and Transmigration has also been running the –Three-in-One Program, which covers training, certification, and placement, since 2007. As many as 162 training centers have been revitalized since 2006 in order to improve the competence and skills of job seekers.

Job Opportunities

The Deputy Chief of the Statistics Bureau (BPS) for Balance and Statistical Analysis, Slamet Sutomo warned that the most crucial issue within the dilemma of unemployment was the weakening of the ability of the economy to provide formal employment. "In 2008, for every 1 percent of economic growth, as many as 702,000 new jobseekers emerged.
However, the trend has been for these potential workers to want to enter the informal employment sector, while there is a need to absorb manpower in the formal sector,” Slamet explained.

BPS has identified that at least 70 percent of workers work in informal sectors. “If this assumption is used when counting new members of the workforce, it means that out of 702.000 new workers, only 210.000 enter formal sectors” he elaborated. One of the formal sectors that take up the most manpower is the manufacturing industry, while the main informal sector is farming, trade, and cargo transport. Slamet feels that this is caused by the fact economic growth is increasingly dependent on the service sectors. Despite the fact that service sectors such as finance and communication sectors don’t demand huge manpower. On the contrary, it is the manufacturing industry that is demanding manpower despite the fact that this industry is weakening. (HAM/DAY)