Pressure on the Productive Age

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

ILLUSTRATION: Applicants queue to sit a test for entry into the civil service at the West Jakarta mayoralty office on Monday (5/11/2018). According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the national workforce in August 2018 reached 131.1 million people, up 2.95 million from August 2017. BPS also recorded a decrease of 40,000 in the number of unemployed people over the past year.

The productive-age generation, which is expected to be able to make changes to and innovations for their environment, is feeling additional pressure.

They have to think of their predecessors and children. The position of the sandwich generation as the backbone of the family squeezes them and puts them under pressure. On one hand, they must bear the needs of their families, on the other hand, they must help support the lives of the generations above them, especially parents. Some of them also have to help cover the needs of siblings or other extended family members.

In many cases, they have to work extra hard without having the space to design a more prosperous future for their families. The portrait of the Indonesian sandwich generation was captured in a Kompas Research and Development poll on 9-11 August 2022 of 504 respondents in 34 provinces.

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The results of the poll show that 67 percent of respondents admit to bearing the burdens of the sandwich generation. If this is proportional to the productive-age population in Indonesia, which amounts to 206 million people, it is estimated that there are 56 million people who fall into the sandwich generation category (Kompas, 8/9/2022).

Those who are at that age are also capable of making innovations, change, and progress.

The above-mentioned figures give us an idea of a generation that is under additional pressure in their productive age. The question then arises as to the impact of this phenomenon in general. At a productive age, people are expected to be able to develop themselves and their surroundings. Those who are at that age are also capable of making innovations, change, and progress.

With the additional burden, their hopes are increasingly difficult to realize. They experience a number of problems, such as financial burdens, which in turn affect their mental health. They are busy with their problems and so the greater loss befalls the country with such a large sandwich generation.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Job seekers packed the Jakarta Job Fair in Thamrin City, Jakarta, on Tuesday (9/8/2022).

The power that exists in that generation should be available to be used to solve the various problems of the nation. The innovation ability of this group is certainly needed to build the nation. The additional pressure breaks all of this. In regard to this, a variety of groups can help. The surrounding environment needs to reduce a number of demands, such as "having to return the investment" from parents.

Community leaders also need to be invited to provide a new understanding of the situation that befalls the younger generation with all the burdens that exist, so that families do not impose their wishes.

The social construction in the form of a number of obligations on children to parents needs to be clarified so that it does not always become a burden on the younger generation. Community leaders also need to be invited to provide a new understanding of the situation that befalls the younger generation with all the burdens that exist, so that families do not impose their wishes.

The government needs to immediately think about a solution to this problem. If this phenomenon is left without attention, the expected demographic bonus will be lost. Their capacity needs to be improved so that their careers and bargaining power may increase. A breakthrough that allows the sandwich generation to take a rest could reduce their mental health problems. Pauses can allow them to rethink their future.

(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo)