According to Soelistianingsih, one of the measures the government can implement to combat the growing Gini ratio is through a tax reform. Taxes should not be the same for those that are (relatively) rich and those that are (relatively) poor. Or fuel subsidies can be fully erased (as the poorer segments of society do not feel the benefits of this policy, and instead spend these funds to education and health. For example, those families that live on less than IDR 20,000 (USD $1.67) per day should get free education and health services. Lastly, the government should do more to stimulate job creation so Indonesia's large workforce can be absorbed by employment opportunities, thus pushing down the country's unemployment rate. Although the unemployment rate of Indonesia has shown a good steady downward trend in recent years, there has been an increase in unemployment in 2013 due to the country's slowing economic growth.

Indonesia's Poverty Statistics:

   2005  2006  2007  2008  2009  2010  2011  2012
Relative Poverty
(percentage of population)
 16.0  17.8  16.6  15.4  14.2  13.3  12.5  11.7
Absolute Poverty
(in millions)
   35    39    37    35    33    31    30    29

Sources: World Bank and Statistics Indonesia

Indonesia's (Un)employment Statistics:

   2006  2007  2008  2009  2010  2011  2012  2013
Unemployment
(percentage of total labor force)
 10.3   9.1   8.4   7.9   7.1   6.6   6.1   6.3

Sources: World Bank and Statistics Indonesia

          2010         2011         2012         2013¹
Labor Force   116,527,546   119,399,375   118,040,000   118,190,000
- Working   108,207,767   111,281,744   110,800,000   110,800,000
- Unemployed      8,319,779      8,117,631      7,240,000      7,390,000

¹ data from August 2013
Source: Statistics Indonesia

Further Reading:

Poverty in Indonesia
Unemployment in Indonesia

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