Number of unemployed people holding bachelor’s degrees increased to 6.22 percent in 2016.
he Central Statistics Agency (BPS) estimates that Indonesia will enjoy a demographic bonus era from 2020 to 2035, during which the productive age population is projected to be at its highest in the country’s history, reaching 64 percent of Indonesia’s population, which is projected to surpass 300 million people by 2035.
The millennial generation will be in the age range of 20 to 40 years in 2020 and comprise 34 percent of the population, greater than the 2020 projections for generation X and baby boomers at 20 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
The 64 percent productive age estimate is more than enough for Indonesia to become a developed country. It is the best ratio of the productive age and will start in 2020 and end in 2035. The future generation of Indonesia will be determined by a combination of three entities: urban society, the middle class and the millennials, which we can refer to as “urban middle class millennials.”
McKinsey predicts that the Indonesian middle class in 2030 will reach 130 million people. The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2015 predicted that Indonesia in 2020 will be the eighth ranked world economy.
However, Indonesia runs the risk of losing its much-vaunted demographic bonus in the next decade as structural unemployment appears to take root in the economy.
According to data, the number of unemployed people holding bachelor’s degrees increased to 6.22 percent in 2016 compared to 5.34 percent a year earlier.
There were 114 million workers in Indonesia in 2013, 86.5 percent of whom were unskilled; 9.7 percent were lightly skilled; 8 percent were trained, and only 3.8 percent were skilled. The data also revealed that 80 percent of the country’s population had dropped out of high school. Understand that the link and match program between the universities and the companies has not worked optimally as educational institutions seem to target producing as many graduates as possible without providing necessary skills required.
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