1 million scholars unemployed, Nurhadi: Not just economic problems, this is a social bomb

FAJAR.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The unemployment rate in Indonesia still seems very alarming. Referring to data from the Central Statistics Agency, no less than 7.28 million unemployment today.

From this figure, SD-SMP graduates contributed 2.42 million unemployment, followed by 2.04 million high school, 1.63 million SMK, 1.01 million undergraduate, and 177.39 thousand diploma.

The number of unemployment refers to the BPS report presented by the Minister of Manpower, Yassierli in the National Seminar on the Central Study of the Indef 2025 (2/7).

Responding to this fact, a member of the House of Representatives Commission IX, Nurhadi, expressed his concern over the high unemployment, especially from college graduates.

This was conveyed in response to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) which recorded 1.01 million unemployed in Indonesia as of February 2025 came from undergraduate education.

“More than 1 million scholars are unemployed? This is a great irony in the midst of a demographic bonus which is said to be an opportunity for Indonesia gold,” Nurhadi told reporters on Sunday (6/7).

Nurhadi deplored the allocation of trillions of rupiah for higher education which was not directly proportional to the absorption of labor. The government actually failed to ensure college graduates have skills according to the needs of the world of work.

“We are facing an absurd situation. The state issued trillions of rupiah for higher education, but the results were ‘parking’ into unemployment,” he said.

He also highlighted the phenomenon of scholars’ salaries that were not much different from high school graduates as a form of injustice. According to him, this is not efficiency, but rather a form of deprivation of the rights and dignity of intellectuals.