Organizer: ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute

Description:

Indonesia has made good progress toward becoming a middle-class country. Yet, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, it faces complex challenges in creating higher-quality jobs for many average Indonesian families to afford a middle-class life (World Bank, 2021). The pandemic has exacerbated these structural challenges in the short and long term and, in turn, could potentially ‘scar’ the Indonesian labour market without appropriate policy actions.

Learning loss, unemployment/underemployment, informalisation and deterioration of job quality could potentially have ‘scarring’ effects on human capital, future job prospects, and lifetime earnings. They have a more dire impact on newly graduated youth who could not find a job. From the demand side of the labour market, firm downsizing and closures might also exacerbate the effects of the loss of many intangible assets, such as job-matching capital, firm-specific capital and business investment (Portes, 2020).

This webinar will discuss the labour market dynamics in recent years. The speakers will share their analysis of potential scarring effects from the demand and supply side of the labour market. They will also discuss recommended policy actions to mitigate these effects that could hold Indonesia’s goal of becoming a thriving upper-middle-class country.

Speakers:

Devanto Shasta Pratomo is a professor in labour economics at Brawijaya University-Indonesia. Dr Pratomo received the Southeast Asian Ministry of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Jasper Research Awards on Education and Employability in 2013.

Adhi Saputro is a senior economist leading the macro policy unit at Prospera, an Australian funded ODA program on public policy and economic governance in Indonesia.

Raden Muhamad Purnagunawan is a lecturer in the Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University in West Java, Indonesia.

Click here to register.