01.03.06. Employment and unemployment rates | Indonesia

01.03.06. Employment and unemployment rates | Indonesia

13 Apr 2022

The unemployment rate in Indonesia was 5.4% in 2017 (CIA World Factbook, 2019). The World Bank estimates that total youth unemployment (15-24 years) as percentage of the labour force amounted to 15.84% in 2018 (World Bank, 2019b).

Employment in the informal economy, which means employment without formal arrangements, is estimated to make up over 60 per cent of the workforce (International Labour Organization (ILO), n.d.-a). This prevailing practice causes some difficulties in estimating employment and unemployment rates in Indonesia. Furthermore, as pointed out above (01.03.04) and further discussed under (01.04) the absence of social protection means that older people are often engaged in economic activity by formal or informal employment into very old age (Kidd et al., 2018).

References:

CIA World Factbook. (2019). Indonesia. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/indonesia/

International Labour Organization (ILO). (n.d.-a). Informal economy in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Retrieved March 9, 2019, from https://www.ilo.org/jakarta/areasofwork/informal-economy/lang–en/index.htm#banner

Kidd, S., Gelders, B., & Rahayu, S. K. (2018). Implementing Social Protection for the Elderly in Indonesia. http://www.tnp2k.go.id/filemanager/files/Perlindungan Sosial Lansia/Elderly Brief – English Version.pdf

World Bank. (2019b). Unemployment, youth total (% of total labor force ages 15-24) (modeled ILO estimate) – Indonesia. World Development Indicators. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.1524.ZS?locations=ID