The weakening economic growth has impacted various sectors, particularly manufacturing and services, resulting in reduced labor absorption.
This condition has caused the number of unemployed to continuously increase. Even the number of highly educated workers is growing.
Based on the latest report data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the unemployment rate as of February 2025 reached 7.28 million people, with an open unemployment rate (TPT) of 4.76%.
This number increased by 83,000 people compared to the previous year. When viewed by education level, high school and university graduates rank highest in the number of unemployed.
This means that the young workforce population is not well absorbed by the available job opportunities.
An expert and observer in the workforce from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (Fisipol UGM), Professor Tadjuddin Noer Effendi, assesses that the high unemployment rate among the educated group is due to the continuously increasing workforce amid minimal job opportunities.
Additionally, there is a mismatch between industry needs and the competencies of the existing human resources. According to Professor Effendi, the government has failed to bridge the education sector with industry.
“The vision of Golden Indonesia might just be a mere dream because we are losing potential talent to build Indonesia. How can we realize that without involving them through labor absorption?” asserted Professor Effendi on Wednesday (May 21).
A high unemployment rate without precise solutions can potentially lead to a series of social problems, such as increasing poverty, criminality, and weakening societal competence.
Professor Effendi believes the government needs to strive to create educated job opportunities capable of accommodating most of the workforce.
Professor Effendi exemplified that the government could encourage competence training efforts, the development of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and the reopening of pre-employment cards.
“What is even more important, in my opinion, due to the large number of educated workers, is the need for education revitalization, especially in vocational training,” said Professor Effendi.
Applied education needs more support so it can be directly channeled into the industrial sector.
Additionally, the development of digital-based training also needs to be enhanced, considering that new technological challenges will continuously emerge.
If the government cannot yet provide adequate job opportunities, Professor Effendi suggested the government could also explore opportunities for unemployment alleviation through exporting labor abroad.
This is considering that the demand for labor in other countries is quite high, while Indonesia has an excess number of workers.
“Channeling labor can be one solution. With the note that the government needs to guarantee the safety and protection of labor by channeling them through Government to Government (G2G),” he stated.
He hopes that the government can create an effective strategy to overcome unemployment with existing opportunities.
If left unaddressed, the worst risk will impact various other social problems.
This is because the economic slowdown in recent years has been one factor contributing to the increasing number of unemployed in the country.
According to Professor Effendi, the slow economic growth in Indonesia has caused many companies to experience crises, forcing them to lay off hundreds of employees.
“The combination of layoffs and educated young unemployment is what causes the unemployment rate to increase. So the government must make policies to solve that problem,” the expert said.
Author: Tasya
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Afifudin Baliya
Illustration: Freepik.com