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Unemployment reaches 7.56 million: BPS
(tribunnews
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(tribunnews.com) (tribunnews.com)
(tribunnews.com)
Up until August, unemployment reached 7.56 million people, an increase of 320,000 people from the same period last year.
According to Central Statistics Agency (BPS) director of population and employment statistics Razali Silitonga, the increased number of unemployed people was a result of layoffs and a decrease in workforce absorption due to the economic slowdown.
"There were new workers that were not absorbed and on the other side there were layoffs. The layoffs and absorption decrease caused an increase in unemployment," said Razali at his office in Jakarta on Thursday.
The employment structure up until August did not change. Agriculture, trade, social services and industry are still the largest absorbers of workers.
He further said that during August 2014 to August 2015, the increase in employment occurred mainly in the construction sector, 930,000 people (12.77 percent), the trade sector (850,000 - 3.42 percent) and the financial sector (240,000 -7.92 percent). "Employment in the construction sector increased as it is a labor-intensive industry. It is good for employment," he added.
BPS deputy head of balance and statistics analysis Kecuk Suhariyanto added that 510 new points of entry for workers from August 2014 to August 2015, to 122.4 million people.
According to BPS data, the number of workers increased by 190,000 in August 2015, to 114.8 million people. The number of full-time workers with more than 35 hours working time per week was 80.5 million people, a decreased of 4.08 percent. While workers with fewer than 15 working hours per week were 6.5 million people, slightly down by 3.44 percent.
Improved quality of workers was indicated by the declining population of fewer educated workers. In the past year, low-educated workers decreased from 74.3 million to 71.5 million people. While high-educated workers rose from 11.2 million to 12.6 million people. This led to the number of formal workers increasing by 1.9 million and the percentage of formal workers increasing from 40.62 percent in August 2014 to 42.24 percent in August 2015. (bbn)
