The Third Highest Riau Islands Province Open Unemployment Rate

Welding workers in the Lobam industrial area, Bintan Regency, Riau Islands (Kepri). ANTARA/Ogen

TANJUNGPINANG- BPS noted that the open unemployment rate (TPT) of Riau Islands Province (Kepri) for the February 2023 period was ranked the third highest nationally at 7.61 percent.

"The figure of the Riau Islands TPT is still far above the national average of 5.45 percent," said Head of BPS Kepri Darwis Sitorus in Tanjungpinang as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, May 6.

Nevertheless, he said, TPT in Riau Islands in February 2023 fell 0.41 percent to 7.61 percent, compared to February 2022 which was 8.02 percent.

"Unemployment in Riau Islands has decreased by around 565 people, from 84.7 thousand people to 84.2 thousand people," he said.

Darwis explained that based on gender, male TPT in February 2023 in Riau Islands was higher than for women, which was 7.79 percent and 7.29 percent, respectively.

However, when compared to February 2022, TPT both experienced a decline of 0.20 percentage points and 0.77 percent respectively in line with the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The change in pattern at TPT shows that there is a fairly large absorption of female labor in the period February 2022 to February 2023," he explained.

While seen from the place of residence, he continued, the TPT for urban areas was 7.90 percent or much higher than the TPT for rural areas of 4.71 percent.

Urban and rural TPT have the same pattern as the provincial TPT, which is down compared to February 2022. Each of them is 0.36 percentage points and 0.98 percentage points.

"Compared to February 2022, TPT in urban and rural areas has decreased. However, when compared to February 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic began, rural areas experienced an increase in TPT," said Darwis.

Furthermore, based on education, the 2023 Riau Islands TPT is still dominated by high school graduates (SMA) compared to other education graduates, which is 10.33 percent. While the lowest TPT is elementary and lower education, which is 4.78 percent.

"Compared to February 2022, the decline in TPT occurred in almost all categories of education with the largest decline in the junior high school (SMP) education category, which was 2.24 percentage points," he explained.

On the other hand, the working age (PUK) population in Riau Islands in February 2023 tends to increase as the population in the local area increases.

The working-age population of Riau Islands in 2023 is 1.64 million people, an increase of 54 thousand people compared to February 2022. Most of the working-age population is a workforce, namely 1.11 million people, the rest including non-workforce as many as 538 thousand people.

"The composition of the workforce in February 2023 consists of 1.02 million people who work and 84.2 thousand unemployed people," said Darwis.

Meanwhile, the participation rate of the workforce (TPAK) increased compared to February 2022.TPAK in February 2023 was 67.29 percent, up 0.81 percentage points compared to February 2022.

TPAK is the percentage of the large workforce for the working age population. TPAK indicates the large percentage of the working age population who is economically active in a country/regional.