RI’s unemployment rate declines: Minister

Indonesia has seen a decline in its unemployment rate over the last decade, Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Syarifuddin Hasan said.

“Within the last decade, Indonesia’s unemployment rate declined to 6.3 percent,” he said during a speech on entrepreneurship at the Indonesia Muslim University in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Saturday.

The decline was significant compared to last decade’s unemployment rate, which stood at 12 percent, he said.

“I aim to reduce it to less than five percent before 2014,” Syarifuddin said as quoted by Antara news agency.

He said that Indonesia’s unemployment rate was a small number, citing unemployment rates in developed countries, including the US and European countries that are struggling with global economic woes, which stand at nine percent and above. (swd)