42.2% of Indonesian workers are elementary school graduates.

As of August 2016, the workforce was still dominated by individuals with primary school education, totaling 49.97 million people (42.20 percent) and junior high school education, totaling 21.36 million people (18.04 percent). The number of employed individuals with higher education was only 14.50 million, comprising 3.41 million diploma graduates (2.88 percent) and 11.09 million university graduates (9.36 percent).

The dominance of workers with low levels of education has become a focus for the government concerning the competitiveness of Indonesian workers' quality. However, the integration of the Southeast Asian economy in 2017 will demand intense competition among workers both domestically and internationally.

As stated in the December 2016 edition of Socio-Economic Statistics, the Central Bureau of Statistics notes that in the past year, the number of employed individuals with higher education increased from 12.64 million (11.01 percent) in August 2015 to 14.50 million (12.24 percent) in August 2016.