JAKARTA - Jakarta Veterans UPN Public Policy Economist and Expert Achmad Nur Hidayat also highlighted the unclear realization of the promise to create 19 million jobs put forward by the Prabowo-Gibran pair during the 2024 presidential election campaign.
According to him, the promise was greeted with high hopes by the community, especially the younger generation, women, and other vulnerable groups. However, one year passed without any significant progress.
He said that on the contrary, Indonesia is faced with an increase in the unemployment rate and the rise of layoffs (PHK) in various industrial sectors.
Based on the latest data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) as of February 2025, it shows that the number of unemployed people has increased by more than 83 thousand compared to the previous year.
"Meanwhile, the wave of layoffs continues in various sectors, such as the textile, electronic, and automotive industries. Sritex was cut off, Yamaha Music relocated factories abroad, and Sanken closed operations, impacting thousands of workers who lost their livelihoods," he explained in his statement, Monday, June 9.
Achmad described the promise as a luxury vehicle that was unable to advance when facing a sharp bend in economic reality.
According to him, one of the causes is external factors such as global slowdown, geopolitical tensions, massive trade wars, and massive digital transformation, making the national labor market more vulnerable.
"In the country, industrial relocation, pressure on imports of manufactured goods from abroad, and the absence of a local labor protection strategy is the perfect concoction for the explosion of layoffs. Thousands of workers from various sectors have lost their jobs, ranging from textiles, electronics, to automotive," he explained.
He added that the government's weak response to the domestic labor crisis exacerbated the situation.
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According to Achmad, the government seems defensively blaming the global situation more often than acknowledging the inaction of domestic policy.
Achmad explained that in a democratic system, campaign promises are social contracts that must be guarded and accounted for.
"So it is natural for the people to collect the progress. Unfortunately, until now there has not been a clear strategic policy direction. There is no framework that can be used as a reference by economic actors. There is no signal that the market can read. As a result, trust is starting to fade," he said.
Achamd said that the Government must be aware that creating jobs is not a matter of making sweet promises, but about formulating a system.
"Working opportunities are not created just because there is economic growth, but because there is a policy design that targets equity. The government must move from growth first logic, empowerment later to empowerment-driven growth logic," he explained.
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