Jobless population down 10.6 percent to 9.43 million: BPS

Aditya Suharmoko ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 05/16/2008 12:39 PM  |  Headlines

Unemployment dropped to 9.43 million by the end of February, down by 10.6 percent from last year, due to higher demand from the public service and trade sectors, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported Thursday.

"The public service sector and the trade, restaurant and accommodation service sector have absorbed more employment in the past year," BPS deputy chairman for social statistics Arizal Ahnaf told a press conference.

Arizal said from the beginning of March 2007 until the end of February, the public service sector absorbed 1.82 million more workers, while the trade sector absorbed 1.26 million more workers.

The number of unemployed people decreased to 9.43 million in February from 10.01 million people a year earlier, BPS reported. The unemployment rate decreased from 9.75 percent in February last year to 9.11 percent in February 2008.

The country has a total population of more than 220 million people according to the latest figure issued in 2004.

The government is aiming to reduce the unemployment rate to between 8 and 9 percent this year.

BPS said from March 2007 until February the number of unemployed people decreased in almost all provinces nationwide, with the exception of Riau, Central Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, South Kalimantan, West Papua, Yogyakarta and Gorontalo.

West Java experienced the highest decrease in unemployment, by 281,000 people, while Central Java and East Java had a decrease of 202,000 people and 198,000 people respectively.

BPS conducts the survey twice a year, in February and August.

BPS also said the number of female workers rose significantly, by 3.26 million within the period, while the number of male workers only rose by 1.2 million.

Most female workers chose to work in the trade and agricultural sectors, with 1.51 million and 740,000 women reported respectively.

"More female members of a family might have started working to support their family. Women now have more of a chance to work," Arizal said.

BPS also reported that in February 2008, the number of workers increased to 111.48 million people, 3.35 million more than a year earlier. About 68.8 million of them were male, while 42.65 million were female.

BPS said 69 percent of the workers were engaged in the informal sector. Almost 33.2 percent of female workers were employed as family workers, while 30 percent of male workers were employed as blue-collar workers.

"As there are more people working for the informal sector, it indicates that they can easily shift their jobs to other sectors in the near future," Arizal said.

Businesspeople have blamed the country's poor investment climate for slowing down expansion in the formal sector, which tends to provide legal certainty and better salaries for workers compared to the informal sector.

A stronger formal sector, they said, could improve the country's ability to curb poverty, which the BPS said stood at 19.03 million in 2007.

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