VIVAnews – The unemployment figure is estimated to increase by 2.2 million in 2009. The high unemployment figure is due to the slowdown in economic growth following the global financial crisis.
Danamon Bank’s Head Economist, Anton Gunawan, states that the estimated high unemployment figure is due to the expected decline in economic growth by up to 2 percent in 2009. The economic growth is expected to fall from around 6 percent this year to 4.3 percent in 2009.
The decline in economic growth will give rise to 600 percent unemployment. “Because in the previous years, 1 percent economic growth gave rise to 300 percent unemployment,” said Anton in a workshop on global financial crisis, Cianjur, Sunday, Nov. 30.
Aside from people who have lost their jobs, the unemployment figure also takes into account new labor force. This figure, according to the National Development Planning Agency’s projection, would be up to 1.6 million workers.
The increase in the number of workers losing their jobs is already apparent toward the end of this year. First and foremost the garment industry has laid off thousands of workers due to the fall in demand. This condition occurred after the largest textile export market, the United States, was hit by the global crisis.
In the steel industry, PT Krakatau Steel has also laid off thousands of its employees. Krakatau could no longer accomplish maximum production due to the fall in steel prices in the domestic market. Krakatau has also stopped all of its export trading, with the exception of Australia.
Translated by: Ramona Sofianne Dewi
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