Screenshot of the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Manpower, Anwar Sanusi, during the virtual C20 event on Tuesday, March 8, 2022. (ANTARA/Prica Triferna/rst)
The impact of this pandemic is experienced by the lower middle-class workforce in Indonesia, especially the female workforceSecretary-General of the Ministry of Manpower Anwar Sanusi drew attention to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the employment sector, especially dealing a significant blow to the lower middle-class workforce.
"The impact of this pandemic is experienced by the lower middle-class workforce in Indonesia, especially the female workforce," Sanusi stated at the C20 virtual agenda on Tuesday.
The ministry's secretary-general highlighted the greater impact of the pandemic on workers, who switched from industrial enterprises to the agricultural sector, from the formal to the informal sector, as well as workers in the accommodation and food and beverage sector and migrant workers.
This is apparent from a decline in the labor force participation rate (TPAK) in youngsters, with high school education, during the pandemic, he stated.
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Sanusi called the agricultural business field and the informal sector as heroes for industrial and formal workers during the pandemic.
The agricultural and informal sectors, especially those in rural areas, offer relatively low wages and do not cover social protection schemes.
In addition, there is pressure on the level of labor wages, especially in the accommodation and food and beverage sectors associated with tourism activities.
This is justified by a decline in the average level of labor wages, with the highest fall in Bali and Bangka Belitung Islands, recorded at around 17.91 percent and 16.98 percent, respectively.
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The impact of the pandemic on employment is also apparent from the decline in remittances from Indonesian migrant workers (PMI). The number of remittances for Indonesian workers had reached around US$9.43 billion in 2020, a decrease of 17.56 percent year-on-year or as compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, based on data from Bank Indonesia.
"This reflects the difficult economic conditions currently being faced by PMI during this pandemic," he affirmed.
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