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Number of laid-off workers reaches 26,506: Ministry
Up to 26,506 workers in Indonesia have been laid off while the rupiah has been weakening, said Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri on Saturday
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p to 26,506 workers in Indonesia have been laid off while the rupiah has been weakening, said Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri on Saturday.
'According to our latest data, the number of workers that had been laid off has not changed much compared to [the data] from last August [which was 26,000],' said Hanif as quoted by tempo.co.
He added that there were plenty of reasons for the lay-offs, including efficiency efforts by firms and the increase of production burdens caused by expensive imported materials, but he highlighted that most of the workers were laid off by not having their contracts extended.
'The number of firms that went out of business are not many: only one or two,' said Hanif.
The minister said he was optimistic that the newly launched economic policy package would be able to prevent the number of laid-off workers (PHK) from increasing further, as the package would focused on three areas: boosting industry competitiveness, accelerating infrastructure projects and increasing investment in the property sector.
'We are more into the increasing of investment to focus on the PHK issue since it will bring developments and increase the uptake of productive manpower,' said Hanif.
He added that the ministry will also monitor the performance of regional heads from the governor to the mayor level to reduce the number of PHK.
'We have sent a letter to governors and regents to make PHK their last option to address the weakening of the rupiah. We all have to monitor this actively,' said Hanif. (kes)(++++)
