DIGIVESTASI - Minister of Manpower (Menaker) Ida Fauziyah spoke up about data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showing that nearly 10 million Indonesian youth aged 15 to 24 are unemployed.

She said that currently the number of registered unemployed in Indonesia is mostly young people aged 18 to 24 years.  According to Ida, the main cause of the high unemployment rate in this group is that they are still looking for and have not yet found a job. 

“It's true, if you look at the data, our open unemployment rate is mainly in the 18 to 24 age group. In general, they are the most unemployed because they are looking for work,” said Ida after a working meeting (raker) with Committee IX of the House of Representatives in Jakarta, Monday (May 20, 2024).

Ida explained that the unemployed generation Z in Indonesia are those who have just graduated from school and are not attached to any education. Specifically, she mentioned that the 18-year-old population who are unemployed are those who have graduated from high school or vocational school, while the 24-year-old population are those who have graduated from S1 / D4 educational institutions. 

“Judging from the data, the majority of our unemployed are people whose status allows them to get a job, people who have dropped out of school,” Ida explained. 

In addition to not being able to find a job, the Minister explained that another reason for the high unemployment rate among Generation Z is that there is no connection between education and training and market demand. The same is true for high school and vocational school graduates, who contribute to the highest youth unemployment rate in Indonesia.

“Most of our unemployment comes from vocational school graduates, the children of high school graduates, this happens because of lack of fit,” said Ida. Facing this phenomenon, Ida said, the government will encourage professional education and training to continue to be oriented and adapt to the labor market. She emphasized that the synergy between education, training, and the needs of the world of work must continue. 

“What the government continues to promote is to build vocational education and training that is connected to the labor market, with alignment and compatibility between education and the labor market,” Ida said. This is something that we continue to encourage.”

Ida admitted that the government has tried to reduce the number of registered unemployed in Indonesia through Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 68 of 2022. According to her, the Perpres focuses on reducing unsuitable people in the workforce. 

She explained: “For this reason, the government formulated Presidential Regulation 68 in 2022. This is one of our efforts to reduce inequality by restoring education and training, connected and synchronized with market work”. 

Previously, BPS reported that there were around 9.9 million young people (15-24 years old) who were inactive or not participating in education, employment, or training (NEET) in Indonesia in 2023.  Of the 9.9 million, 5.73 million are young women and 4.17 million are young men. 

Generation Z, the young unemployed generation, should be in their productive years. For information, Gen Z is a generation born between 1997-2012 and is currently aged 12-27 years old. 

The proportion of the population aged 15-24 years who are NEET in Indonesia reaches 22.25% of the total population aged 15-24 years nationally.

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