Source: Kompas.com | 01 Jul 2020

Director of Apprenticeship of the Ministry of Manpower, Siti Kustiati, said the impact of the corona virus (Covid-19) pandemic was very large on the world of workforce.

Based on the survey results from the Ministry of Manpower and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Demographic Institute of the University of Indonesia, the company chose to lay off employees due to the impact of the pandemic.

“The impact of the corona on the number of employees is even more devastating. 13.9 percent of companies reduce the number of employees, “he said in a virtual discussion initiated by the Indonesian Journalists Association (AJI) Jakarta, Wednesday (1/7/2020).

Then, there are 49.6 percent percent of companies decided to lay off some of their work without being laid off. And 36.5 percent of companies do not increase or decrease the number of workers.

Furthermore, Siti added, of the 15.6 percent of workers affected by layoffs (PHK), some of them received severance pay. However, not a few of the workers who were laid off did not receive severance pay.

“There are 15.6 percent of the laid-off workers. Among them, 13.8 percent of workers were laid off without severance pay and 1.8 percent of workers were laid off with severance pay, “he said.

Meanwhile, the number of workers who were laid off by sex, men still dominated as much as 16.7 percent, and women 14.2 percent.

In addition, regarding the impact of Covid on entrepreneur groups, the results of a joint survey by the Ministry of Manpower show that 39.4 percent of their businesses have stopped or are not producing at all.

“39.4 percent of businesses are stopped, businesses are not affected, even better, 1.0 percent, and 2.5 percent of businesses are not affected. “The impact of the business is running even though production has decreased by 57.1 percent,” he explained.

Siti said, the sector most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic situation was not the hospitality sector, but the employment sector.

“Because from various sectors there are workers who have been laid off,” he said.

According to him, the number of unemployed before the covid outbreak reached 6.88 million or 4.99 percent. Then, from the data registered at the Ministry of Manpower, there were 3 million workers who were laid off during the pandemic.

“Then 1.7 million workers who have been laid off have been verified. There were various challenges before Covid, namely 56.82 percent of workers who graduated from SD-SMP and below. There are 56.50 percent of informal workers, ”he said.