Indonesia To Send 425,000 Workers Abroad In 2025, Seen Generating $18.5 Billion In Foreign Exchange Earnings – OpEd

Indonesia intends to send at least 425,000 workers to foreign countries  this year, a move expected to generate over 300 trillion rupiah (US$18.5 billion) in foreign exchange earnings, the VnExpress newspaper and Antara news agency reported.

It is also expected to boost the country’s economic growth by 0.52%, according to Indonesia’s Minister of Migrant Worker Protection Abdul Kadir Karding.

In 2024, Indonesia deployed 297,000 overseas workers, accounting for Rp 251 trillion in foreign exchange revenues and increasing economic growth by 0.36 percent. This program also helped reduce unemployment by nearly 4 percent, benefiting 7.47 million workers. 

Based on the National Labour Force Survey (Sakernas), the total labour force in August 2024 was 152.11 million people, representing an increase of 4.40 million people compared to August 2023. 

Despite these achievements, the 2024 figures fell short of the global labor market’s demand for 1.35 million workers. To address this, the government has raised its 2025 target and is intensifying efforts to maximize overseas job opportunities to further stimulate the national economy.

Key strategies include enhancing workers’ language skills, with English prioritized starting from elementary education. This intends to improve the competitiveness of Indonesian workers.

Besides, prospective overseas workers will undergo skill certification, safety training, and other preparatory programs.

Karding emphasized that building the capacity of Indonesian workers will also help reduce illegal labor practices and exploitation abroad.

Currently, approximately 5 million Indonesians are employed in over 100 countries, primarily Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and the Republic of Korea. However, an equal number of Indonesians are believed to be working overseas illegally in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

To address this issue, Indonesia has developed the SISKOP2MI system, a digital platform to safeguard the rights of Indonesian migrant workers and streamline protective services.

The unemployment rate in Indonesia declined to 4.91percent in the September quarter of 2024 from 5.32 percent in the same quarter the previous year. The number of unemployed persons dropped by 4.96 percent from a year earlier to 7.47 million.

According to the Antara news agency, unemployment is a crucial issue that the Indonesian Government has tried to tackle through a number of initiatives since 2024.

According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the number of unemployed in the working-age group stood at 7.47 million in August 2024, a decline of 390 thousand compared to the year-ago period.

The year 2024 has been the rollout of the Labor Market Information System (SIPK), which aims to build a sophisticated and comprehensive information system and describe the structure of the workforce, its characteristics, and supply and needs.

The strategy is regulated in the Manpower Minister’s Regulation Number 5 of 2024 on SIPK. It is expected to improve the quality of human resources so that they can gain the skills and competencies to meet the demands of the job.

To tackle the unemployment rate, the Ministry of Manpower has been consistently developing community job training centers (BLKs) that meet various needs of the community related to increasing their competitiveness.

The ministry is also encouraging BLKs to serve as entrepreneurial incubators by pursuing synergy between vocational training and job opportunity expansion.

To achieve this goal, the Ministry of Manpower is not only collaborating with ministries and agencies but also various parties ranging from businesses to academics to ensure that the benefits are enjoyed by the people optimally.

With the presence of entrepreneurial incubators, the community BLKs are expected to support the economy through entrepreneurship by supporting job absorption and reducing unemployment.

As of September 2024, the government has built 4,282 community BLKs spread from Aceh to Papua.

Sending Indonesian youth abroad to work will reduce the unemployment. But the government must increase the numbers as many countries like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea want to employ Indonesian workers.

Indonesian youth must be trained properly before sending abroad. Indonesians will face a big competition from English-speaking and high skilled Filipino workers. Just 1.83 million Filipinos work abroad and remit $40 billion back home. Filipino workers are the biggest senders of the money back home in Southeast Asia.