Medan, Indonesia – After graduating from college with a regulation diploma two years in the past, Andreas Hutapea assumed he wouldn’t have a lot issue discovering a steady profession.
In actuality, Hutapea discovered himself going through one rejection after one other.
Hutapea first did not make it by means of Indonesia’s notoriously troublesome civil service exams, which result in a job for less than about 3 % of candidates, and was equally unsuccessful in his bid to develop into a trainee prosecutor.
Earlier than regulation college, Hutapea had dreamed of becoming a member of the military, however he couldn’t meet the peak requirement.
Finally, together with his cash operating out, Hutapea left the coed lodging he was renting to maneuver again in together with his dad and mom, who run a easy store promoting oil, eggs, rice and different groceries.
Hutapea has been working at his dad and mom’ store, in a city on the outskirts of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, ever since.
“I open the store for them within the morning, sit there all through the day serving prospects after which assist shut at night time,” Hutapea, who graduated from highschool in 2020, instructed Al Jazeera.
“My dad and mom don’t pay me a wage for my work, however I can’t blame them for that. They’re giving me free meals and lodging.”
Hutapea is much from alone in his struggles to search out steady, well-paying work.
Indonesia has one of many highest charges of youth unemployment in Asia.
About 16 % of the greater than 44 million Indonesians aged 15-24 are out of labor, based on authorities statistics – greater than double the youth unemployment price of neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam.
In a survey printed by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore in January, younger Indonesians expressed much more pessimistic attitudes concerning the financial system and the federal government than their friends in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Solely about 58 % of Indonesian youth stated they had been optimistic concerning the authorities’s financial plans, based on the survey, in contrast with a median of 75 % throughout the six international locations.
College college students march throughout an antigovernment protest known as ‘Indonesia Gelap’ (Darkish Indonesia), towards the latest price range effectivity insurance policies, close to the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 20, 2025 (Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)
In February, a few of this angst spilled onto the streets when college college students fashioned the Indonesia Gelap, or Darkish Indonesia, motion to protest authorities plans to trim spending on public companies.
Economists level to a variety of things for the excessive price of jobless youth in Southeast Asia’s largest financial system, from inflexible labour legal guidelines that make hiring troublesome to poor wages that fail to draw succesful staff.
“Many individuals select to be outdoors the labour market somewhat than having to work for a wage beneath expectations,” Adinova Fauri, an economist on the Centre for Strategic and Worldwide Research (CSIS), Indonesia, in Jakarta, instructed Al Jazeera.
“Good jobs are additionally not broadly accessible, so individuals flip to the casual sector, which has decrease productiveness and safety.”
Indonesia, which is residence to greater than 280 million individuals, has lengthy struggled with continual youth unemployment.
Whereas nonetheless excessive in contrast with the remainder of the area, governments have, by means of the years, made some progress in getting extra younger individuals into work – as not too long ago as a decade in the past, one-quarter of younger Indonesians had been estimated to be with no job.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, a retired military basic who oversaw crackdowns on the 1998 pupil protests that precipitated the autumn of former President Soeharto, has acknowledged the necessity to create extra jobs, establishing activity forces to deal with unemployment and negotiate on commerce with United States President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Prabowo hailed the start of “a brand new period of mutual profit” for Indonesia and the US, after Trump introduced a deal to decrease tariffs on Indonesian items from 32 to 19 %.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto Waves to the Media Upon Arrival from An Abroad Journey at Halim Perdanakusuma Airforce Base in Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 16, 2025 (Achmad Ibrahim/AP)
Although older adults are much less susceptible to being unemployed – Indonesia’s general jobless price is about 5 % – a lot of the work that’s accessible is unstable and poorly compensated.
About 56 % of the Indonesian workforce is employed within the casual sector, based on 2024 figures from the Bureau of Statistics, leaving thousands and thousands in susceptible circumstances and with out social safety protections.
“The decline within the open unemployment price doesn’t essentially mirror good efficiency within the labour market,” Deniey Adi Purwanto, a lecturer on the Division of Economics at IPB College in Bogor, instructed Al Jazeera.
“The standard of jobs and casual employment are nonetheless main issues.”
However for younger individuals, the mismatch between the variety of job seekers and jobs is especially extreme.
“Firstly, graduates of secondary and tertiary training don’t at all times match the wants of the labour market, and there’s additionally a excessive proportion of informality,” Purwanto stated.
“Indonesia has a really giant variety of younger individuals, so the stress on the labour market is far greater.
“We even have quickly rising ranges of secondary and better training,” he added.
“Many younger school graduates keep away from casual or low-paid jobs, so that they select to attend for appropriate jobs, which results in unemployment.”
Purwanto stated there was additionally a scarcity of efficient vocational coaching and apprenticeship programmes in Indonesia, in contrast with neighbours resembling Vietnam or Malaysia.
“In Malaysia, for instance, there are extra industry-university linkage schemes and graduate employability programmes,” he stated.
Job Seekers attend a job truthful in Jakarta, Indonesia, on October 8, 2024 (Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)
Stark regional disparities in Indonesia, which is made up of some 17,000 islands, compound the issue, with younger individuals in distant and rural areas discovering it particularly troublesome to entry good jobs.
That is significantly true in areas outdoors the island of Java, which is residence to the capital Jakarta and greater than half of Indonesia’s inhabitants.
Hutapea skilled this firsthand when he moved again together with his dad and mom, who stay about two hours out of Medan.
Regardless of having a regulation diploma, Hutapea, who’s determined to now not work in his dad and mom’ store, has discovered job alternatives skinny on the bottom.
Hutapea, who additionally has a facet gig organising sound methods for weddings and events, not too long ago attended an interview for a job replenishing banknotes in ATMs.
However despite the fact that he thought the interview went effectively, he by no means heard again from the recruiter.
For Hutapea, who accomplished a few of his regulation college modules in the course of the summer time holidays so he may graduate a 12 months early, it’s laborious to not really feel like his efforts haven’t been in useless.
“I didn’t wish to be a burden to my dad and mom, who had been paying all my college charges,” Hutapea stated.
“However take a look at me now.”
