Yesterday (06/11), Statistics Indonesia (BPS), a non-departmental government agency, announced the latest unemployment figures. The agency updates the country's unemployment rate twice per year, using February and August as reference points.

          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

   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

Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS)

The number of workers in Indonesia's agriculture sector fell from 38.9 million to 38.1 million, while the number of workers in the industry sector fell from 24 million to 22.8 million. In the services sector, however, the number of workers increased from 47.9 million to 49.9 million. The table below indicates the top four sectors that absorbed Indonesia's workforce in recent years. The numbers represent percentages of the total Indonesian workforce.


     2011    2012    2013¹
Agriculture    42.5    38.9    38.1
Wholesale Trade, Retail Trade,
Restaurants and Hotels
   23.2    23.2    23.7
Community, Social and
Personal Services 
   17.0    17.1    18.2
Manufacturing Industry    13.7    15.4    14.9

¹ data from August 2013
Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS)

Unemployment is highest for graduates of vocational schools (11.2 percent), followed by highschool graduates (9.7 percent) and primary school graduates (3.51 percent).

Click here to read a more detailed overview of unemployment in Indonesia

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