JAKARTA (ANTARA) – Minister of Human Resources Development Ida Fauzia highlighted during the G20 summit in Brazil that Indonesia has succeeded in containing the unemployment rate from 5.45 percent in 2023 to 4.82 percent in 2024.
“We will continue to pursue lower tax rates by adopting far-reaching, measurable and targeted measures,” she said at a conference in Fortaleza, Brazil, on Friday (July 26), according to a statement from her office quoted here on Saturday.
Fawziya explained that these measures include improving the quality of education and training activities, encouraging investment by simplifying permit procedures, helping people from the informal sector of the economy to move up to the formal sector, and developing a national job market information system.
“We will also continue to improve agricultural productivity. It is important to modernize the agricultural sector with the introduction of advanced technologies that can dramatically increase productivity and have a positive impact on tourism and the creative economy sector,” she said.
However, the minister acknowledged that despite the improvements, Indonesia’s current unemployment rate remains relatively high compared to other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
She attributed this trend to the fact that Indonesia is the most populous country in the region, producing around three million new workers each year.
She also pointed out that there is a gap between workers’ skills and the needs of the job market, which has kept Indonesia’s worker productivity below the ASEAN average.
The minister further stated that the Indonesian government is currently doing its utmost to create quality employment opportunities to ensure workers have suitable jobs.
Fauzia stressed that quality jobs are essential for Indonesia to fully recover from the widespread negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the national economy.
