Low-Quality Workforce Poses Challenge

About 41 percent of some 124 million working people in Indonesia have only elementary school education. The decline in the official unemployment rate over the past year presents a new challenge in the form of improving the quality of Indonesian workers.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Applicants queue to sit a test for entry into the civil service at the West Jakarta mayoralty office on Monday (5/11/2018). According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the national workforce in August 2018 reached 131.1 million people, up 2.95 million from August 2017. BPS also recorded a decrease of 40,000 in the number of unemployed people over the past year.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS —  About 41 percent of some 124 million working people in Indonesia have only elementary school education. Therefore, the competitiveness of the national workforce remains low.

The decline in the official unemployment rate over the past year presents a new challenge in the form of improving the quality of Indonesian workers. The competitiveness of the workforce remains low, because it is dominated by workers with only elementary school education.