Andreas Hutapea assumed he would not have much trouble finding a stable career after graduating from college with a law degree two years ago.
Hutapea actually encountered several rejections.
In his attempt to work as a trainee prosecutor, Hutapea first failed to pass Indonesia’s notoriously difficult civil service exams, which only about 3% of applicants received.
Hutapea had a dream about joining the army before going to law school, but he was unable to meet the height requirement.
Hutapea eventually moved back in with his parents, who operate a simple store selling oil, eggs, rice, and other groceries after his money ran out and left the student housing he was renting.
Since then, Hutapea has been employed at his parents’ store in a small town in Medan, North Sumatra’s capital.
Hutapea, who graduated from high school in 2020, told Al Jazeera, “I open the shop for them in the morning, sit there all day serving customers, and then help close the store at night.”
I can’t blame my parents for not paying me a wage for my labor, she said. I’m getting free lodging and food. ”
In his search for stable, well-paying employment, Hutapea is not the only one.
One of Asia’s highest rates of youth unemployment is in Indonesia.
According to government statistics, about one-third of Indonesia’s more than 44 million teenagers between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed, which is more than twice the rate of youth unemployment in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam.
Young Indonesians expressed far more pessimistic attitudes toward the government and the economy than their peers in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam according to a survey conducted by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore in January.
Compared to the survey’s survey, which found that 58 percent of Indonesian youth said they were optimistic about the government’s economic plans, compared to an average of 75% in the six nations.
When university students organized the Indonesia Gelap, or Dark Indonesia, movement to protest government plans to reduce public spending, some of this angst started to spread to the streets in February.
The high rate of jobless youth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy is attributed to a number of factors, including labor-heavy labor laws that make it difficult to hire, and low wages that fail to entice competent workers.
According to Adinova Fauri, an economist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indonesia, many people choose to work outside the labor market rather than to earn salaries below expectations, according to Al Jazeera.
People turn to the informal sector, which has lower productivity and protection, because good jobs are not readily available. ”
More than 280 million people live in Indonesia, which has long struggled with youth unemployment.
While the rate is still high in comparison to the rest of the country, governments have made some progress over the years in assisting more young people in finding employment. As recently as a decade ago, it was estimated that one-quarter of young Indonesians were without a job.
President of Indonesia, former president of Indonesia and former prime minister of the army, Prabowo Subianto, has acknowledged the need to create more jobs by forming task forces to combat unemployment and negotiate trade agreements with US President Donald Trump.
After Trump announced a reduction of tariffs on Indonesian goods from 32 to 19 percent, Prabowo hailed the start of “a new era of mutual benefit” for Indonesia and the US on Wednesday.
Although older people are less likely to be unemployed, Indonesia has a jobless rate of about 80%. 5 percent: The majority of the work is inert and poorly compensated.
According to the Bureau of Statistics’ 2024 figures, 56% of Indonesia’s workforce works in the informal sector, leaving millions of people without social security protections and in unsafe conditions.
According to Deniey Adi Purwanto, a lecturer in the Department of Economics at IPB University in Bogor, the decline in the open unemployment rate does not necessarily reflect strong employment results.
Both informal employment and the quality of employment are still significant issues. ”
However, for young people, there is a particularly severe disconnect between job seekers and job seekers.
There is a high level of informality among graduates of secondary and tertiary education, according to Purwanto, who also contends that the needs of the labor market are not always met.
The pressure on the labor market is much higher because Indonesia has a sizable population of young people.
Additionally, he continued, “We have rapidly increasing secondary and higher education levels.”
Many young college graduates choose to wait for suitable jobs, which leads to unemployment, rather than avoiding informal or low-paid jobs. ”
In comparison to neighbours like Vietnam or Malaysia, Purwanto claimed that Indonesia also lacked effective vocational training and apprenticeship programs.
He cited more industry-university linkage schemes and graduate employability programs as examples of Malaysians.
The problem is made worse by the startling regional disparities that Indonesia, which consists of about 17,000 islands, have. Young people in remote and rural areas find it particularly challenging to get good jobs.
This is especially true in areas that are farther away from Java, where Jakarta is the country’s capital and where more than half the population lives.
When Hutapea moved back with his parents, who reside about two hours away from Medan, he first saw this.
Hutapea, who has a law degree, has been struggling for employment since moving out of his parents’ shop.
Hutapea recently had her interview for a job replenishing banknotes in ATMs. She also has a side job setting up sound systems for weddings and parties.
But despite his best efforts, he never heard back from the recruiter.
It is difficult to believe that Hutapea’s efforts were in vain because he took some of his law school coursework during the summer holidays so he could graduate a year early.
Hutapea said, “I didn’t want to burden my parents, who were already paying my entire university costs.”
Source: Aljazeera
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