Not More Than 10 Percent, New Certified Construction Workers 629,622 People

JAKARTA - In the midst of the contribution of the construction sector which reached 9.81 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP), the certification of construction labor (TKK) in Indonesia is still very low.

Of the approximately 8.2 million construction workers, only 629,622 have bagged competency certificates.

The Chairman of the Construction Services Development Agency (LPJK) for the period 2025-2029, Insannul Kamil, said that this condition was ironic considering that Law Number 2 of 2017 concerning Construction Services requires everyone working in the construction sector to have a certificate of competence.

"BPS said we have about 8.2 million workers in the construction sector. If you look at Article 70, everyone who works in the construction sector must have a certificate. However, until yesterday, out of about 8.2 million construction workers, only 629,622 people were certified. Not even 10 percent," said Insannul at the Extraordinary Congress of the Indonesian Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (IATPI) in Jakarta, Friday, July 17.

According to him, the low number of certified workers is not in line with the large role of the construction sector in the national economy.

He explained that the construction sector contributed 9.81 percent to GDP or became the fourth largest contributor.

In fact, in the midst of national economic growth of 5.1 percent in the second quarter of 2026, the construction sector actually grew higher, reaching 5.49 percent.

"The growth of the construction sector is actually above the national economic growth. There are not many sectors whose growth is higher than the economic growth, but the fulfillment of certified expert labor is not yet up to 10 percent," he said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the IATPI for the period 2023-2027, Endra S. Atmawidjaja, said that his party would contribute to pursuing the backlog of certification through training and mentoring of professional personnel.

According to Endra, IATPI not only focuses on issuing competence certificates, but also ensures the quality of human resources through sustainable capacity building.

"We not only provide certification, but we train first. We give the certificate, then maintain the competence so that it does not go down. So, this is our effort so that professionals have a place to continue to improve their skills," he said.

Endra added that IATPI oversees various professional fields, ranging from drinking water, sanitation, wastewater, sampling, drainage to plumbing.

In the future, IATPI will also develop new competencies in the field of green infrastructure and carbon credit.

Similarly, IATPI Honorary Council Member Joni Hermana assessed that increasing the competence of construction workers is one of the keys to accelerating the development of environmental infrastructure.

Joni said that access to safe sanitation services in Indonesia has only reached around 10.2 percent, the lowest in the ASEAN region.

According to Joni, this condition is inseparable from the limitations of human resources (HR) who have adequate competence and certification in the planning and implementation of sanitation infrastructure projects.

"Our hope is that IATPI can help the government's development in the field of environmental infrastructure and sanitation through the preparation of competent human resources, so that the lag can be pursued," he explained.