Jakartans thrive on challenges

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 10/16/2009 3:10 PM  |  City

Job seekers in Greater Jakarta are more willing to take up challenges and travel beyond their hometowns for work, experts said Tuesday.

"Compared to job seekers and employees in other cities, those in Greater Jakarta are more willing to work faraway from their hometowns," said Chandra Ming from JobsDB Indonesia, an online job recruitment service provider.

He added that job seekers in Greater Jakarta - the area defined as Jakarta and surrounding cities like Bekasi, Depok and Tangerang - were also more willing to work overtime.

"However, since they have a higher propensity to take up new challenges, they are also more willing to leave a job they do not like, which is a problem for employers," Chandra said at a press conference on his company called 2009 Career Expo.

Pramono, a human resources manager at a minimarket chain, said many workers nowadays were well-aware of other job opportunities.

"Now prospective employees can find out about salaries and work conditions in other companies through online social networks. They can also find many job vacancies in various media," he said.

Pramono added that while every company found it hard to find high-quality employees, keeping them in the company was a greater challenge.

"Job seekers and employees nowadays are very smart and Internet savvy. The employers must be able to provide a great working environment or they will lose their high-performing employees," he said.

Despite the experts' claims about job seekers in Greater Jakarta, the rate of unemployment in the area is still high.

Jakarta's manpower agency reported there were now more than 590,000 unemployed in the city alone. Chandra explained that despite the large number of job seekers, companies still found it difficult to find suitable employees.

"Most job seekers in greater Jakarta are only interested in working for prestigious companies. They also want high salaries. That is one of the reasons why there are still many unemployed people in Jakarta nowadays," he said.

According to Chandra, job seekers mostly want to work for media companies, banks, mining companies and telecommunication companies.

"These fields of work are deemed prestigious, and many job seekers believe they will receive higher salaries by working for these companies," he said.

Billy, a 25-year-old university graduate from Tangerang, just resigned from his previous job to find a better paid one.

Billy does not mind working in other cities or islands. "But, I still prefer to work in Java or Bali," he said.

Ririn Sagala, another job seeker, said she preferred working for prestigious companies.

"A company must have many positive attributes to become prestigious," she said.

Ririn, a married woman, added that her family responsibilities might prevent her from taking jobs outside of Greater Jakarta.

"I am willing to work in other places than Jakarta but only if my husband can also work in the same city," she said. (mrs)

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