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How Does a High Population Make Indonesia Potentially Superior to ASEAN Countries?

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THE EDITOR – One of the reasons why Indonesia’s unemployment rate is the highest in ASEAN is because of the country’s large population.

Indonesia has the largest population among ASEAN countries according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 2023, the IMF said that the population in Indonesia reached 277 million people. The Philippines followed in second place with a population of 117 million and Vietnam in third place with a population of 98 million.

Next is Thailand with a population of 72 million, Myanmar 55 million, Malaysia 34 million, Laos 8 million, Singapore 6 million, Timor Leste 1.4 million, and Brunei Darussalam 452 thousand.

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“Our population is 278 million and our labour force is 140 million. Now it may be 150 million people. Of these, around 4.91% are categorised as open unemployment,” said Professor Anwar Sanusi, Secretary General of the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, in a talk with Kusuma Prabandari not long ago.

Such conditions, he continued, make Indonesia the country with the highest number of open unemployment today.

However, Professor Anwar also highlighted the good side of this high population. This is because Indonesia has the highest demographic bonus in ASEAN, even in Asia today.

Demographic bonus is known to be an economic advantage for a country since it can increase economic activity, business, and industry.

“Among ASEAN countries, we (Indonesia) are in the demographic bonus category, meaning that the productive age is the highest,” he said.

HOW TO KEEP THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE LOW?

Ilustration (FOTO: Alinea.id/THE EDITOR)
Ilustration (FOTO: Alinea.id/THE EDITOR)

Professor Anwar Sanusi also shared ways to keep the unemployment rate low in the country.

One of them is by maintaining the development of labour-intensive industries that attract a lot of labour force. For example, the food, beverage, tobacco processing, textile, apparel, leather, footwear, wood, cork, children’s toys, and furniture industries.

Second, by preparing the labour force through vocational training in order to increase the skills of job seekers. However, he admits that the capacity and needs must still be increased.

Third, by creating a conducive and stable economy. It is because, for workers, the economic and political situation must also be conducive. They will not be able to focus on their duties if the economic and political situation are unstable.

LABOUR SKILLS AND COMPANY NEEDS DO NOT MATCH

Professor Anwar Sanusi said that there are a lot of miss-match cases in the workplace where labourers do not have skills that are needed by the company.

For example, master’s and bachelor’s graduates have to work in jobs that are supposed to be for bachelor’s degrees. And a nurse turns out to have to work as a secretary.

This miss matching situation occurs due to the lack of limited job opportunities and the lack of skills and experience that job seekers have.

This often happens because, sometimes, in the campus, students have to learn theory only and lack practice, especially those related to the world of work.

“That’s where vocationalisation and adjustment skills come in,” he said.

Professor Anwar Sanusi said that the Indonesian workforce must also be aware of improving their abilities as well as companies in order to continue to compete.

However, he did not deny that this work mismatch sometimes occurs when employees experience layoffs.

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