The working age population affected by the pandemic included 2.56 million people unemployed due to the pandemic, 1.77 million temporarily unemployed, and 24.03 million people, whose work hours reduced during the pandemic.
"The pandemic has, so far, caused an increase in the number of unemployed to 9.7 million people, with an open unemployment rate (TPT) reaching 7.07 percent in Indonesia," the minister stated here on Tuesday at the launch of an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the expansion of employment opportunities.
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Drawing reference to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data as of August 2020, Fauziyah noted that the pandemic had thrown new challenges and created problems in the labor sector, apart from the fact that 57 percent of the people were educated below junior high school level, and there were still several workers in the informal sector.
The COVID-19 pandemic also encouraged people to adapt more quickly to changes in the use of technology, bring new work patterns, and offer greater work flexibility in terms of time and place.
"This is the impact of a pandemic for which precautionary measures should also be taken, so that we are not left behind and take wrong steps in facing the current rapid changes," Fauziyah affirmed. (INE)
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Translator: Fardah Assegaf
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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