ID :
17331
Thu, 08/28/2008 - 22:55
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/17331
The shortlink copeid
GOVT'S UNEMPLOYMENT, POVERTY REDUCTION TARGETS HARD TO ACHIEVE: RESEARCHER
Jakarta, Aug 28 (ANTARA) - The government's poverty and unemployment reduction targets as mentioned in the Draft 2009 State Budget are hard to achieve because growth in various economic sectors is stagnant, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said here on Thursday.
"Growth in the tradeable sectors (agriculture, mining and industry) is stagnant while it is these sectors which the government expects to absorb much of the work force," Latif Adam, a researcher at LIPI's Center for Economics (P2E-LIPI), said here Thursday.
Adam said the unemployment rate in Indonesia now stood at 8.5 percent but it was expected to grow by 0.5 percent to 9 percent in 2009 while the government's target was 7-8 percent.
A divergence would also happen to the government's poverty reduction target of 12-14 percent because the poverty rate had in reality already reached 15.4 percent by March 2008, he said.
The major obstacles to achieve the government's targets lay in the low labor absorption capacity of the tradeable sectors.
Currently it was the non-tradeable sectors which were able to absorb much of the work force, namely electricity, gas, drinking water, construction, hotels, trade, transportation, restaurants, communication, finance and services.
Adam put a stress on type of labor absorbed by these non-trade-able sectors. It is true that the level of absorbent by these factors are significant, but lack of proper quality since many labor are working in non-formal sectors.
So by then, Adam said, there is a gap between number of poverty and unemployment.
The unemployment rate will decrease but poverty will increase because the main work force absorber would then be the informal sector which does not need highly-skilled workers, Adam said.
"Growth in the tradeable sectors (agriculture, mining and industry) is stagnant while it is these sectors which the government expects to absorb much of the work force," Latif Adam, a researcher at LIPI's Center for Economics (P2E-LIPI), said here Thursday.
Adam said the unemployment rate in Indonesia now stood at 8.5 percent but it was expected to grow by 0.5 percent to 9 percent in 2009 while the government's target was 7-8 percent.
A divergence would also happen to the government's poverty reduction target of 12-14 percent because the poverty rate had in reality already reached 15.4 percent by March 2008, he said.
The major obstacles to achieve the government's targets lay in the low labor absorption capacity of the tradeable sectors.
Currently it was the non-tradeable sectors which were able to absorb much of the work force, namely electricity, gas, drinking water, construction, hotels, trade, transportation, restaurants, communication, finance and services.
Adam put a stress on type of labor absorbed by these non-trade-able sectors. It is true that the level of absorbent by these factors are significant, but lack of proper quality since many labor are working in non-formal sectors.
So by then, Adam said, there is a gap between number of poverty and unemployment.
The unemployment rate will decrease but poverty will increase because the main work force absorber would then be the informal sector which does not need highly-skilled workers, Adam said.
