Indonesia sees improvement in job creation

The number of members of the working population in August 2021 had reached 131.05 million people, an increase from 128.45 million as compared to the corresponding month last year, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS).

The number of formal workers has increased from 50.77 million people in August 2020 to 53.14 million in August 2021, while that of informal workers also increased from 77.68 million people last year to 77.91 million.

The number of informal workers increased during the pandemic, with the proportion in August 2019 reaching 55.88% of the total working population and growing to 60.47% in August 2020 before falling to 59.45% in August this year, said manpower minister Ida Fauziyah.

The open unemployment rate also fell from 7.07% in August 2020 to 6.49% in August this year.

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By educational level, workers with junior high school education and below, still constituted the bulk of the working population at 55.45% in August 2021. Those with high school and vocational education made up 31.73%, while for those with diploma and university degree, it was 12.82%, she said, according to Antara News.