At least 30 Percent Openings in the Work Market Not Filled In

JAKARTA, KOMPAS-As many as 4,516,100 out of 9,427,600 people that enter the category opened unemployment as of February 2008 are graduates of SMA, SMK, diploma programs, and universities. The low rate of adaptability of formal school graduates to meet the demands of the labour market is becoming a problem to eliminate unemployment.

Ironically, this condition takes place during a time when Indonesia reaches the highest point in economic growth in the last 10 years, which is 6.3 percent. The government must focus on the raising of competency and expertise of the labour force to increase the absorption rate of new work force.  

Thus is one of the points that surfaced in the report of Trends in Labour and Social Affairs in Indonesia 2008 to ILO. An Economist at ILO Jakarta, Kee Beom Kim, Thursday (8/21) in Jakarta, said that as many as 50.3% unemployed in the year of 2007 has SMA education or higher.

"The improvement of education quality becomes a very important matter for the government in the future,” says Kim.

Educated unemployed people include young people aging 15-24 years, as many as 5,660,036 people.

Opened unemployment is a work force that does not work. Although the number of educated unemployment increases, generally, the number of opened unemployment decreases to 10,011,100 people.

Competency Improvement

A researcher at the Demographic Institute at Universitas Indonesia, Sri Moertiningsih Adioetomo, explained that the government has to be more focused on improving the competency and expertise of SMA students, SMKs and university students since they are still studying.  

"The government must focus on the development of young generation that will enter the work market since their school time. They are very potential and are able to absorb various lessons to improve competency and expertise accustomed to the demands of the work market,” says Moertiningsih.

On a separate occassion, the Minister of Labour and Trans-migration Erman Suparno said that the effort of suppressing unemployment must be started from up-stream, which means the improvement of the education system. Without competency improvement since the beginning, the flow of unemployment will be difficult to stop.

According to Erman, the Department of Labour and Trans-migration, Department of Education and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry have been working together since the 13^th of February 2007 to synchronize the understanding of the demands of the work market with the education world. This joint cooperation includes three things, namely comprehension of the industrial relationship between employee and employer, the demands of the work market, as well as the introduction to working regulations.

"The minimum competency and expertise level of graduates from formal school can be detected in work expos that are being more and more popular since 2006. Although people who are interested in these expos are plenty, almost 30 percent of the openings are not filled in because the applicants do not meet the requirements of the employers. This means, the work opportunities are available, but the competencies of the applicants do not meet the requirements asked,” says Erman.

The Department of Labour and Trans-migration has also organized a three in one program, which consists of training, certification and placing since 2007. As many as 162 training centres were revitalized since 2006 to increase the competency and expertise of worker candidates.

Work market

The Head Deputy of the Centre for Statistic, Statistic Analysis Department Slamet Sutomo reminds us that the crucial problem in the unemployment chaos is the weakening of the economic growth to provide formal work places. “In 2008, every one percent of economic growth adds 702,000 workers. However, there is a trend that is growing which enters the informal sector. What is actually needed is the absorption of workers in the formal sector," he says.

BPS identifies around 70 percent workers being in the informal sector. “If the assumption is used in the addition of new workers, this implies from 702,000 new workers that multiply every one percent growth, only around 210,000 workers enter the formal sector,” he follows.

The formal sector that absorbs the most workers is the manufacturing industry, while informal jobs are mostly provided by the agricultural, commerce, and delivery sector.

According to Slamet, this is caused by our economic growth that is more and more depending on the service sector. This sector, such as communication and finance, does not absorb enough work force. On the contrary, the growth in the manufacturing industry which absorbs the most workers is getting weaker. (HAM/DAY)