Job Opportunities in the Changing World

KOMPAS/JUMARTO YULIANUS

Job seekers packed the Sultan Suriansyah Building after the opening of the 2020 job fair in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Wednesday (26/2/2020). 57 companies participated in the job fair and provided 2,744 job vacancies.

Finding a job was challenging even before the Covid-19 pandemic. In the digital age, the job market has moved in a new direction. However, history has taught us that even in the most devastating times of change, there are always opportunities.

In the past year, the labor market has experienced a severe shock due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Companies affected by the pandemic have had lay off workers to survive the crisis. According the Manpower Ministry, the number of workers who lost their jobs reached more than 3.5 million people as of July 31, 2020.

Also read: Unemployment Expected to Increase Further

Some of the workers who lost their jobs have entered the informal sector, while the rest are still unemployed. According to data provided by Statistics Indonesia (BPS), new unemployment numbers totaled 26 million as of August 2020, raising the total unemployed people to 9.77 million. As many as 1.2 million of them are college and university graduates.

On the other hand, the number of new job vacancies is shrinking. As an illustration, Jobstreet Indonesia recorded that the number of job vacancies available on its website fell by about a third from before the pandemic, which was around 30,000 per month. In the period March-May 2020, the number of job vacancies stood at between 8,000 and 10,000 per month. The decline in labor market demand due to the pandemic is also reflected in BPS data, which show a decline in the percentage of formal workers from 44.12 percent (August 2019) to 39.53 percent (August 2020).

Kompas

Unemployment Rate by Education Level. Elementary School (SD), Junior High School (SMP) Senior High School (SMA), Vocational High School (SMK), Diploma I / II / III (DI / II / III), University (Universitas), Total (Jumlah). Source: Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS)

What are the employment prospects in 2021? The chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), Hariyadi B. Sukamdani, said in October that entrepreneurs would continue to take cost-cut measures to recover from the crisis. He estimated that the number of formal workers in Indonesia would decrease by between 5 percent and 30 percent in 2021.

Such a situation makes the gap between supply and demand in the world market even wider, especially since each year there is an additional 2.25 million new jobseekers.

Also read: Keeping a Close Eye on Unemployment

The Covid-19 pandemic is not the only factor that has changed the map of the labor market. Long before the Covid-19 pandemic, the employment map had begun to change, following the industrial move toward an automation. This change has cut many jobs.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates that by 2025 about 85 million jobs will be replaced by machines. While, on the other hand, there will be 95 million new jobs. The fall in the demand for certain jobs began to appear 2-3 years ago.

KOMPAS/RUNIK SRI ASTUTI

Thousands of job seekers are hunting for job vacancies at the Sidoarjo job fair, Wednesday (25/11/2020).

WEF data noted that in 2020, there are 20 types of jobs that are in demand in the job market, mostly related to digital technology, such as data scientists / analysts, artificial intelligence specialists, big data specialists, robotic engineers, software developers, and information security analysts. Meanwhile, there are 20 types of jobs whose demand on the job market has decreased, including data input, secretaries, bank tellers, construction workers, and human resource specialists.

Demand in the job market has also become more complex. Workers in the digital era are not only required to have technical abilities but also traits, such as being flexible, stress-resistant, critical and the ability to think analytically, innovative, creative, socially influential, hard worker, diligent, willing to learn, and never gives up. Like it or not, this is the demand for the job market in the digital era that must be fulfilled by jobseekers and even those who already have a job to stay competitive.

Also read: Welcoming Unemployment Security

However, the digital age has not only changed the labor market, but has also provided many opportunities to become self-employed. During the pandemic, we’ve see many people making money by selling goods and services over the internet. One of them is Novia Rahma (22), an accounting student at Gajah Mada University. When many students left their boarding houses during the pandemic, she and his friends set up a start-up called Beresin Kosmu, which offers cleaning services for boarding houses where many students stay. They earn an average of Rp 3 million a month.

So, who can compete in the digital era? Of course, those who have abilities, traits that are in line with the demands of the digital era, and those who are keen to take advantage of opportunities. No matter how small they are. (BUDI SUWARNA/ ESTER LINCE NAPITUPULU)