The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the economy, resulting in increased unemployment rates.

Data released by the Manpower Ministry in April showed that over 1.2 million workers from 74,439 companies in both the formal and informal sectors had either been told to stay home or laid off.

With the uncertainties and economic slowdown following the imposition of the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), job seekers, both fresh graduates and professionals, are facing tougher competition to find new opportunities.

Faridah Lim, country manager of job portal website Jobstreet Indonesia, said that the number of jobseekers had doubled during the pandemic, explaining that in the pre-coronavirus days, the platform saw around 400 job seekers applying for one job but that now the number of applicants had increased to around 800.

The portal also saw an 11 percent increase in the number of job seekers accessing the platform between April and June.

While the number of job seekers has increased, the number of job opportunities significantly dropped between April and May.

Faridah shared that the portal usually had around 30,000 job vacancies monthly before the pandemic, however, in those two months, there were only 8,000 opportunities on the platform.

Popular

Indonesia calls for more representative UN amid changing world order

Safeguarding Indonesia's AI future

Recentralization concerns in fiscal, education heighten