Government Wants To Increase UMP 2025, Apindo Asks Human Resource Quality To Be A Reference

JAKARTA - The government's steps to increase the provincial minimum wage (UMP) by 2025 must coincide with improving the quality of human resources (HR) and the productivity of workers. This is important because these two things will improve the welfare of the workers.

Head of the Manpower Division of the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) Bob Azam said the increase in workers' wages would be difficult without increasing productivity and quality of human resources. This is because half of the workforce in Indonesia has a low level of education.

"So we have to improve the quality of workers by conducting training. The government also needs to carry out many job training programs to improve workers' skills and skills updating," he said, quoted from ANTARA, Saturday, November 9.

He continued, abroad, workers will receive training reaching 14 days a year. For example, Singapore provides budgets and training facilities for workers over the age of 40 to improve skills.

Then, South Korea provides support and training facilities for workers who want to switch to digital-based jobs.

He said structured training is important because every year there are also three people looking for work in Indonesia. Around 20% of the 100 million workers in Indonesia need skills improvement and skills updates.

Regarding the determination of the 2025 UMP, Bob hopes that the government can focus more on optimizing existing regulations, namely Government Regulation Number 51 of 2023, rather than continuing to issue new regulations.

"Regulational changes can create uncertainty that has an impact on investment, which even leads to the loss of employment opportunities. In fact, Indonesia needs at least three million new jobs every year," he concluded.