Wamenaker: 170 Million New Jobs Predicted To Be Created By 2030

JAKARTA Big changes in the world of work continue to lurk in Indonesia. Global predictions state that until 2030 there will be around 170 million new types of jobs, but at the same time 92 million jobs are expected to be lost due to automation and digitization. This condition is the basis for accelerating the preparation of workers who are really ready to face the transformation of the labor market.

The issue was in the spotlight of the Deputy Minister of Manpower of the Republic of Indonesia (Wamenaker RI), Afriansyah Noor, when delivering an oration at the Muhammadiyah University Jakarta (UMJ) Graduation procession at the Cendekia UMJ Building.

Carrying the theme 'The World of Education Transition to the World of Work', Afriansyah explained that Indonesia currently has a working age population of 218.17 million people, with 146.54 million working and 7.46 million still unemployed. The majority of workers are dominated by junior high and high school graduates, reaching 15.08 million and 31.05 million, respectively.

"This means that most of our workforce still has basic skills, even though today's work demands are increasingly oriented towards technical and digital skills," said Afriansyah.

He emphasized that around 57.80% of the workforce is still in the informal sector. This condition is an indicator of the need for increased competence, accelerating skills certification, and strengthening the work placement system to improve the quality of the national work market.

Wamenaker also highlighted three global factors that change the employment landscape, namely digital and AI disruption, green transition, and demographic changes. According to him, these three factors will affect the structure of the job field, both in terms of the number and type of new jobs that arise.

Afriansyah explained the three main strategies of the Ministry of Manpower (Kemnaker) to strengthen the ecosystem of the Indonesian world of work. This strategy includes optimizing national vocational training, collaboration across ministries/agencies and local governments, as well as strengthening the labor ecosystem to make it more harmonious and adaptive.

The Ministry of Manpower has signed an MoU with 20 ministries/agencies, 12 local governments, and 35 development partners. The collaboration includes digital skills, entrepreneurship, green jobs, downstream industry, agroforestry, and alignment of the vocational curriculum," he explained.

Afriansyah also explained six strategic programs of the Ministry of Manpower, namely optimizing the work training center, strengthening SIAP Kerja, national internship programs, increasing national productivity, transformative industrial relations and norm enforcement, and optimizing barenbang labor.

Closing his oration, he reviewed the main challenges of school-to-work transition that new graduates still face, such as skills inequality, lack of work experience, lack of job market information, to inequality between regions.

He emphasized that career success is not only determined by the GPA, but also technical skills, creativity, portfolios, professional networks, and adaptability skills.

"Quick changes demand that we have a growth mindset dare to accept challenges, be ready to study again, not be afraid of failure, and be open to criticism," he said.

Afriansyah hopes that UMJ can continue to produce adaptive and competitive graduates in the global work market. A total of 1,558 students were officially graduated in the 13th Doctoral Program, 51st Masters, 8th Specialists, 82nd Bachelors, and Diploma Tiga.