Over 1 in 5 young Indonesians are out of work. Fixing that won’t be easy

Southeast Asia’s largest economy has the world’s fourth-largest workforce, but it’s outshone by its neighbours like Malaysia and Thailand

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A student protester raises his fists as young Indonesians hold a rally in Jakarta last month against President Prabowo Subianto’s budget cuts. Photo: AP

Published: 9:49am, 11 Mar 2025

In a workshop overlooking paddy fields on the eastern edge of Java, Dimas Firmansyah is tinkering away on a large truck engine. A lanky 18-year-old in a hard hat and work shirt, he hopes to find a job repairing coal machinery when he graduates in a few months. Thanks to his school’s revamped curriculum and corporate partnerships, he almost certainly will.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto – who has advertised ambitious, industry-heavy growth goals for the coming years – needs many more Firmansyahs. Southeast Asia’s most populous economy has the world’s fourth-largest workforce, but more than a third of Indonesians over 15 have only a primary-school education, or less. Vital vocational training, like this class some 400 miles (640km) east of Jakarta, too often falls short because of poor teaching and a dearth of basic equipment.

The result is a pressing shortage of qualified workers and high unemployment among young people who find themselves lacking the skills companies need, even with a diploma in hand. The rate of youth that are out of both a job and education, a good indicator of wasted human resources, is one of Southeast Asia’s highest, at more than a fifth.

That gap threatens Prabowo’s ambitions to turn a wealth of natural resources into a thriving electric-vehicle and clean-energy industry. Discontent with paltry education funding is already fuelling youth protests on Jakarta’s streets, the largest demonstrations of popular discontent since the president took office in October.

Students and activists create a sign on a read reading “Tax the rich, eat the rich” at a protest in Jakarta last month against President Prabowo Subianto’s budget-cutting policies. Photo: AFP

“Indonesia has invested heavily on infrastructure,” said Alpha Amirrachman, a director of the climate centre of Muhammadiyah, an Islamic organisation which runs thousands of schools in the country. “Investment in human capital, education and healthcare has not kept pace.”