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Apindo labor chair expects employment recovery in 2022
The Indonesian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Association (Akumindo) is expecting employment to start recovering later this year, while the Indonesian Employer Association (Apindo) says the recovery may take place in the second quarter of next year.
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Female factory workers in Indonesia have the right to take menstrual leave, as outlined in Law No. 13/2003 on labor. However, not many women are aware of this rule, and those who often fear being called lazy if they opt to take it. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
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ndonesian Employer Association (Apindo) labor affairs deputy chair Bob Azam expects domestic employment to return to prepandemic levels by the second quarter of 2022, led by the reopening of small businesses.
He predicted a faster recovery among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) than among larger companies as the recent easing of micro-scale public activity restrictions (PPKM) tended to favor the informal sector.
“We can see that the formal sector has not been very active,” Bob told The Jakarta Post on May 6. “There was a rise in employment in February because of the harvest season, so the informal sector has actually been more active. Employment will go down in August [as the harvest season ends].”
Indonesia’s unemployment rate fell to 6.26 percent in February this year from a decade-high 7.07 percent in August of last year, according to a biannual survey by Statistics Indonesia (BPS).
Under Bob’s projection, Indonesia’s unemployment rate in 2022 will approach the 4.94 percent recorded in February 2020, a month before the country confirmed its first cases of COVID-19.
Read also: Unemployment remains high at 6.26% as millions continue to reel from pandemic 'fallout'
Many economists have said that helping MSMEs, which employ 97 percent of the country’s workforce, is key to lowering unemployment to prepandemic levels, wherein roughly half of the informal labor force worked in agriculture.
