Rising workforce numbers and Industry 4.0 challenge Indonesia’s HR

Secretary general Anwar Sanusi was speaking at the G20 Kick-Off on Education and Culture recently where he said, “In addition to the pandemic, we face two issues, with the first one being the demographic bonus.”

The huge demographic bonus in Indonesia adds two million new workers annually to the workforce, either with or without the pandemic, he said.

In addition, with the working-age group predominantly comprising millennials and those from the Gen Z, new workers will need to keep abreast of changes brought on by Industrial Revolution 4.0 as future jobs have a distinct pattern and different way of working than before, he said.

The pandemic has led to 29 million workers in Indonesia being unemployed or laid off, while others have had their work hours reduced.

Anwar said these challenges can be overcome if the country capitalises on its areas of potential, including introducing IT development creatively so that potential economic optimisation in the country’s 74,961 villages can be realised, he said.

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Also, as some jobs become obsolete in future, workers in Indonesia need to have updated skill sets so that the government can respond with policies for sustainable job creation in response to the huge manpower, Anwar said, according to Antara.