Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia will take the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) projection of 5 percent national unemployment rate for this year into account in designing anticipatory measures to sustain growth, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) head Hasan Nasbi said.
According to Nasbi, the government will also pay heed to inputs from other economic institutions, considering their analysis can help it anticipate turmoil and maintain economic growth.
"Analysis from institutions such as the IMF is certainly an important input for the government to anticipate, to maintain our economy," he said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
However, the government will still refer to the results of the National Labor Force Survey (Sakernas), an official survey conducted by Statistics Indonesia (BPS), to determine the unemployment rate, he informed.
As per data from Sakernas, Indonesia's open unemployment rate (TPP) fell 0.06 percentage points to 4.76 percent in February 2025 from 4.82 percent in February 2024.
In addition, the underemployment rate also declined to 8 percent in February 2025 from 8.52 percent in February 2024.
Meanwhile, the number of full-time workers, meaning those working more than 35 hours per week, increased to 66.19 percent in February 2025 from 65.60 percent in February 2024.
"There are indicators showing layoffs, but also the creation of new jobs," Nasbi said.
He explained that the absolute unemployment rate was not solely based on laid-off workers but also workforce addition, especially new graduates from universities or vocational schools.
Data from Sakernas shows that the highest number of unemployed was recorded in February 2025. They were dominated by high school graduates (28.01 percent); holders of diploma IV, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees (13.89 percent); and diploma I/II/III holders (2.44 percent).
"We are still optimistic. The government will issue various policies (to reduce the unemployment rate) as well," Nasbi said.
In the April 2025 edition of the World Economic Outlook report, the IMF projected that Indonesia's unemployment rate will reach 5 percent in 2025, up from 4.9 percent last year.
The IMF's calculation of the unemployment rate factors in the percentage of unemployed workers or job seekers.
Meanwhile, the BPS considers people to be unemployed if they are aged 15 years and over and are not working, but looking for work; preparing a new business; accepted to work/ready to work but have not started working; or finding it impossible to get a job.
The open unemployment rate (TPT) is an indicator used by the BPS to measure the unabsorbed workforce in the labor market and describes the underutilization of labor supply.
