Indonesia's Unemployment Rate Increases due to Pandemic: Minister Ida Fauziah

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The unemployment rate has risen significantly in Indonesia due to the COVID-19 pandemic, stated Manpower Minister Ida Fauziah.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the number of unemployed people increased by 1.84 percent to 9.7 million, with the open unemployment rate reaching 7 percent, in August, 2020 compared to a year earlier, she said while opening competency-based training for the budget year 2021 at the Surakarta job training center on Wednesday.

"In the previous five years, we managed to keep down the unemployment rate to 4.99 percent in February, 2020," she remarked.

In August, 2020, the number of unemployed people just in Central Java had reached 1.21 million, an increase of 396 thousand compared to the previous year, she said quoting BPS data.

"The unemployment rate rose significantly by 2.04 percent compared to the previous year. Around 3.97 million working-age people in Central Java are believed to have been affected by the pandemic," she added.

She said the pandemic has no doubt added to the issues faced by the manpower sector, in addition to the existing challenges related to the quality of human resources, competency, and productivity.

National data shows nearly 57 percent of employed people graduated from junior high school and below, with limited skills, she informed. "For Central Java province, the percentage of employed people with low education is higher at 65 percent," she said.

Ida Fauziah also expressed the hope that all parties would collaborate and synergize to resolve the latest problem in the manpower sector.

Read: Number of Unemployed Up 2.6 Million due to Pandemic, Says Minister

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