UMP Paid Internship Program Will Be Expanded To 100 Thousand Participants

BOGOR - The government plans to open an internship opportunity with a provincial minimum wage (UMP) for 100 thousand people.

Director General of Economic and Fiscal Strategy of the Ministry of Finance Febrio Kacaribu, said that the opening of this vacancy is still waiting for the results of the evaluation from the first stage of the UMP salary internship program which is currently underway for 20 thousand people.

"We have actually prepared around 100 thousand (internships with UMP salaries), but we will evaluate the 20 thousand first. As soon as we see the evaluation is good, if there is something that needs to be improved, we will fix it first," he said at the 2026 State Budget Completion event. , Thursday, October 9th.

He added, if the internship program in the early stages runs smoothly, there will be a possibility to increase the number of participants.

According to Febrio, the initiative of this salary internship program is a form of stimulus to overcome the high unemployment rate among young people, which currently reaches more than 15 percent.

He said that this program was a strategic breakthrough so that higher education graduates could enter the world of work faster, without having to wait too long.

"Because if he has graduated from college, for example, the cost is quite high. We hope that he will enter the job sooner than be postponed. So that his prime age, his productivity, can be directly utilized," he said.

Febrio said that this internship program provides compensation equivalent to the UMP in each of them, and if the internship organizers want to give a higher wage, they are welcome.

Furthermore, Febrio explained that every year Indonesia adds around 3.5 million new workforces, originating from the productive age population and new graduates.

He emphasized that the entire workforce could actually be absorbed every year. However, the government encourages more of them to work in the formal sector.

"Although, the informal sector is not always bad. There are also many informal sectors, such as gig economy, tend to be informal, but they are more flexible and produce more attractive income," he said.

"Moreover, Generation Z friends. Well, but we know that if we want to create jobs, we want to be of higher quality," he added.