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Waves of lay-offs sweep Indonesia’s export-oriented industries in 2023
Textile-producing hubs in Java as well as mining hubs in Kalimantan and Sulawesi suffer from weakening global demand and deluge of cheap imports.
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A worker completes production of sarong cloth in a textile factory in Majalaya industrial estate in Bandung regency, West Java, on Jan. 4, 2019. (Antara/Raisan Al Farisi)
D
espite earlier reports of declining unemployment and resilient growth, Indonesia’s economy still took a hit from weaker global demand last year, leading to almost 300,000 workers being laid off in export-oriented industries.
The Manpower Ministry recorded that more than 295,000 people were laid off from January to November in 2023, with most of them located in West Java (36.1 percent) and Central Java (20.3 percent), as reported by Katadata.
Indonesian Employer Association (Apindo) labor affairs chair Bob Azam said the layoffs mostly occurred in the textile and footwear industries caused by weaker demand from Europe.
“It’s problematic when an industry is only export-oriented. When the export demand weakens, workers are directly affected,” Bob told Katadata.
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The demand from Europe, Bob said, was reduced by 50 percent, while the companies that focus on Asian markets could still survive.
He added that provinces that relied on exports, like East Kalimantan for coal and Central Sulawesi for stainless steel, were also affected.
