Page 26 - e-KLIPING KETENAGAKERJAAN 12 JUNI 2020

“I don’t think that [people getting their job backs] has taken place, because demand in the labor
market is still low,” Tadjudin told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview on Tuesday.

The comments come as around 400,000 people or 60 percent of preemployment card recipients
have completed their first training, according to Panji Ruky, the director of communication,
partnership and ecosystem development for the preemployment card program.

With many nonessential businesses shutting factories, health restrictions have forced more than
1.7 million people out of work as of May 1, according to data from the Manpower Ministry. More
than half of them were formal sector workers furloughed by their employers.

In line with the ministry’s report, a survey on the program’s eligible recipients by the National
Team for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (TNP2K) found that 80.8 percent of the respondents
were unemployed in May. In January, only 37.6 percent of them told the survey they were
unemployed, which suggests that they lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

Luhur Bima, a researcher at SMERU Research Institute, said firms were most likely to employ
people they previously furloughed. “Employers will be very cautious in restarting their business
activity, so demand for labor amid the transition may not increase significantly,” Bima told the
Post.

With a budget of Rp 20 trillion (US$1.4 billion), the government introduced the preemployment
card in mid-April to help 5.6 million people whose jobs or small businesses were hit by the
pandemic. The government estimates that 3 to 5.2 million people may lose their jobs because
of the severe economic impact of the pandemic.

People affected by the pandemic are mostly young and educated, in line with the survey’s finding
that 88 percent of the respondents were below 35 years of age and 59 percent were senior high
school or vocational school graduates.

The unemployment rate was highest among people aged 15 to 24 years, which stood at 16.28
percent in February, an increase of around 1 percentage points from a year earlier.

Deni Purbasari, the executive director of the preemployment card program, maintained that the
program was “not misdirected”, despite criticism about its relevance to train the workforce at a
time when employers are not hiring.

“If they are unemployed, young and educated, they are obviously a wasted resource,” Denni
said in a virtual briefing on Monday. “We have to make sure that this jobless generation is
learning something while the job market plunges.”

The survey found that 3,185 of the respondents, an overwhelming majority, hoped they would
get new skills from the program, which partners with eight online learning platforms, including
ecommerce giant Tokopedia.

The most popular training courses in the program are language, entrepreneurship skills, digital
marketing, makeup, coffee brewing and information technology, said Panji of the program’s
management team.

The government offers Rp 600,000 in monthly aid as an incentive to encourage people to take
the training, but those funds will only be disbursed once the recipient completes a course.
Recipients are free to choose how to spend the money.

In the survey, 4,105 respondents said they would use the aid to make ends meet, clearly in line
with the backdrop of losing income.

25