Unemployment Rate in Indonesia Surpasses 7.86mn People

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Statistics Indonesia (BPS) reported that the unemployment rate in the country surpassed 7.86 million people in August 2023. The number represented 5.32 percent of the labor force as of that month.

Acting Head of BPS Amalia Adaninggar Widyasanti stated that the number was a decline amounting to 0.56 million people compared to August 2022. Despite the downward trend, the unemployment rate was still higher than in pre-pandemic periods.

Concerning the unemployment rate in Indonesia, an economist from the Institute for Demographic and Poverty Studies (Ideas) Yusuf Wibisono stated that the unemployment target in 2024 for Indonesia ranges from 3.6 to 4.3 percent. "With this much time left of the year, it will be hard to decrease the rate at least to 4.3 percent," he said to Tempo on Thursday. 

Yusuf then compared the number to the unemployment target in the 2023 State Budget of 5.3 to 6 percent. According to Yusuf, Indonesia has successfully reached the target. 

"The low rate of unemployment in Indonesia is only proper, not an achievement," Yusuf said. 

This, he said, is not attributable to the adequate number of job opportunities, but rather the high rate of poverty in the country. "The pressure of poverty forces people to work," he said. "For them, working is a luxury."

Meanwhile, the Head of Fiscal Policy at the Finance Ministry Febrio Kacaribu said that the menpower condition in Indonesia is recovering along with the sustained level of economic growth during the Q3 period. This past year, he said, economic growth in Indonesia created additional job opportunities for 4.55 million people. Febrio also claimed that the portion of formal laborers in Indonesia increased from 40.69 percent in August 2022 to 40.89 percent.

AMELIA RAHIMA SARI | ANTARA

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