Reduced Unemployment? Head Of BPS Says Don't Be Happy First, Many Working Hours Are Cut

Illustration of a job seeker (Photo: Doc. Between)

JAKARTA - Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Suhariyanto said that the reduced unemployment rate could not be used as the main reference in concluding improvements in economic conditions in Indonesia.

According to him, many people have jobs but their contribution and productivity cannot be said to be better.

"So don't be happy if the unemployment rate drops, because there are a lot of workers who are still experiencing reduced working hours," he said while attending a Hearing Meeting with Commission XI of the Indonesian House of Representatives at the Senayan Parliament Complex, Jakarta.

Suhariyanto added that the current conditions require a special approach to employment and cannot be compared to the situation before the pandemic. For this reason, the use of labor data and the unemployment rate must be detailed in more detail to ensure the level of productivity to be achieved.

"So we should not only look at the decline in unemployment, but also the number of workers affected by shorter hours because it will have a huge impact on the economy," he said.

In previous reports, the government through the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that the unemployment rate in Indonesia was quite reduced during the pandemic.

In his notes, the unemployment rate in the August 2020 period had risen to the level of 7.07 percent. However, the figure was later reduced to 6.62 percent in February 2021.

"In that period, the Indonesian economy, despite contracting but in a recovery trend, managed to create 2.61 million new jobs," he said when delivering a speech on the government's response to the views of the DPR RI factions on the 2022 RAPBN at the Senayan Parliament Complex, Jakarta, Monday 31 May.

According to the Minister of Finance, this fact then gave rise to hope that the wheels of the economy had started to spin fast after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the business sector.

“This job absorption is faster than the addition of the number of new job seekers, which increased by 1.59 million people in the same period. As a result, the unemployment rate has decreased," he explained.