Instead of reassuring students, Indonesia's economy is still positive, investment will come in and eventually there will be many jobs available. However, the Minister of Investment/Head of BKPM, Bahlil Lahadalia, recommended that students become entrepreneurs. Minister Bahlil admitted that currently it is difficult to find work in Indonesia. In fact, he said that currently the number of unemployed in Indonesia is still quite high after the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Bahlil, the high number of unemployed people has not been matched by absorption from companies because their condition has not yet recovered sufficiently. This is what makes it difficult for many fresh graduates or new workforce to be absorbed by the industrial sector.
"I want to convey that currently there are 7 million unemployed, the workforce per year is 2.9 million. Post-covid 19 unemployment there are still 5 million people," said Bahlil seoertu quoted in his speech at the Joint Discussion event at Diponegoro University, via BKPM virtual broadcast, Sunday (20/8/2023).
Therefore, the students who attended the Bahlil event hoped that the younger generation would not be fixated or aspire to only be employees, but should be able to become entrepreneurs to create jobs.
"PNS, TNI/Polri, SOEs receive no more than 1 million a year, so if younger siblings all come here all just thinking about being employees, then I have no doubt that many will not be absorbed in the job market," said Bahlil.
"Then I suggest you to become an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is noble," he continued.
The still weak absorption of labor in this industry is due to the declining demand for products from both the domestic and foreign markets due to the global economic slowdown.
Minister Bahlil quoted BPS data, the textile industry's export value in the January-February 2022 period was corrected -29.23% when compared to the same period the previous year. The apparel industry corrected -33.39% in the same period for exports to the United States.
Similar conditions also occurred for the value of exports to European countries, in the period January - February 2022 the textile industry's export value was -29.74%, while the apparel industry corrected -11.59%. The weakening market has resulted in many industries making efficiency efforts, one of which is reducing employee spending.
Then data from the Ministry of Manpower also shows, JHT claims due to layoffs have jumped dramatically. Even from 2020 to 2022, the total number of JHT claims due to layoffs is almost 1 million people, 998,882 people to be exact.
