He made the statement in response to the latest data released by Statistics Indonesia (BPS), which pegged the open unemployment rate in February 2025 at 4.76 percent, marking the lowest level since the 1998 crisis.
"Amidst the global economic challenges, Indonesia's employment has shown strong resilience. This resilience provides an opportunity to strengthen interventions aimed at creating broader and higher-quality jobs," Yassierli said in a statement issued here on Wednesday.
He added that job creation has been significant, with an additional 3.59 million people entering the workforce, according to BPS data.
Furthermore, the latest data also indicates an improvement in job quality indicators compared to February 2024.
The proportion of full-time workers has risen from 65.6 percent to 66.2 percent. Meanwhile, the rate of underemployment has declined from 8.5 percent to 8.0 percent, and the share of part-time workers has dipped slightly from 25.9 percent to 25.8 percent.
Job creation has been seen across nearly all sectors of the economy, Minister Yassierli said.
The sectors contributing the most to employment growth include trade, which has absorbed 980 thousand workers, followed by agriculture (890 thousand workers) and the manufacturing industry (720 thousand workers).
Within the manufacturing sector, the largest labor absorption has been seen in the footwear industry at 172 thousand workers, followed by small-scale food industries (137 thousand) and motorcycle component manufacturing (117 thousand).
Yassierli said that his ministry will continue to enhance collaboration with other ministries and agencies, business actors, labor unions, and development partners to boost productivity, expand employment opportunities, and improve national workforce competitiveness.
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Translator: Arnidhya, Kenzu
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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