BPS data revealed that provinces in eastern Indonesia recorded the lowest rate of participation in the government program. West Papua saw the lowest figure at 0.08 percent of the total number of preemployment card recipients, according to a National Survey on Labor Force (Sakernas) study of 300,000 households in August.

Gorontalo trailed at 0.37 percent, followed by Papua, North Kalimantan and North Maluku.

“The preemployment card program in August appeared to be more popular in urban areas and the western part of Indonesia,” BPS head Suhariyanto said in a virtual briefing on Monday. “We need to analyze it deeper. Is it because of digital infrastructure obstacles or other problems?”

With a budget of Rp 20 trillion (US$1.36 billion), the preemployment card program, which involves basic skilling and social assistance, aims to help workers and small business owners affected by the pandemic.

COVID-19’s impact on the economy has led Indonesia to its first recession in two decades, as well as massive job losses nationwide.

Indonesia plunged into recession for the first time in two decades as the economy shrank 3.49 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the third quarter after plunging 5.32 percent yoy in the second quarter.

With the economic impact from the health crisis, 2.67 million people have lost their jobs between August 2019 and 2020 due to the pandemic, BPS data show. The country’s unemployment rate rose to a decade high of 7.07 percent in August, a 1.84 percentage-point increase from 5.23 percent in the same month last year. 

The preemployment card program offers its recipients monthly assistance of Rp 3.5 million for four months to cover training costs and benefits.

Eligible recipients will only receive the monthly cash assistance after completing at least one course on any of eight partnering digital platforms.

Most recipients use the money for daily needs, savings or to start a business, according to the BPS survey.

“In this situation, a stimulus from the government is expected to help,” said Suhariyanto.

He added that the low distribution in eastern Indonesia’s provinces might be attributed to the pandemic being less severe on the region’s economy compared to western Indonesia.

West Papua recorded a 6.8 percent open unemployment rate in August 2020, compared to Jakarta’s 10.95 percent in the same period, according to BPS data.

However, Suhariyanto said the government needed to “persistently raise awareness about the preemployment card” by working with regional administrations “to facilitate those with difficulties in registration due to inadequate digital means”.

After a three-month pause in admitting recipients, the government started rolling out the program again in August, raising the number of recipients per round of admissions to 800,000. It had admitted 5.9 million recipients as of early November.

The government had taken into account the unemployment rate, the number of job openings and the coronavirus prevalence when allocating the quota of preemployment card recipients in provinces, said Deni Purbasari, the executive director of the program’s management.

“Since these three variables were low, [the eastern Indonesia provinces] get a relatively low quota,” Deni said. “But in each batch, the number of recipients from provinces in eastern Indonesia was always below the available quota.”

The preemployment card still managed to reach around 18,000 recipients in North Maluku, 15,000 recipients in Papua and 5,000 recipients in West Papua, according to Deni.

It is claimed to have helped those in the central mountain areas like Deiyai, Dogiyai and Central Mamberamo regencies in Papua, whose local residents would otherwise find it costly to access similar programs.

The BPS also found that only 28.39 percent of workers and 45.19 percent of unemployed workers were aware of the program.

“Compared to other social assistance programs that have also run for less than a year, I think 40 to 50 percent is good enough,” said Elan Satriawan, an economist from Gadjah Mada University.

With the number of recipients surpassing this year’s initial target of 5.6 million, the government is planning to continue rolling out the preemployment card next year, according to Susiwijono Moegiarso, the secretary to the coordinating economic minister.

“The government will continue the preemployment card in 2021. [However], recipients in 2020 cannot be recipients again in 2021 to ensure equal opportunity for the workforce,” said Susiwijono.