Maluku's Open Unemployment Rate Increased to 6.93% in August 2021

Maluku is one of the Indonesian provinces with the highest national Open Unemployment Rate (OUR). This is due to the number of unemployed people growing faster than the number of employed people. In August 2021, the OUR in Maluku Province increased by 0.19 points to 6.93% compared to 6.73% in February 2021.

Based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), the number of unemployed people in Maluku increased by 5.84% to 59,590 in August 2021 compared to February 2021. Meanwhile, the number of employed people only increased by 2.68% to 800,760 in August 2021 from February 2021.

Compared to August 2020, the number of unemployed people in Maluku decreased by 6.14%, while the number of employed people increased by 3.23%. Thus, the OUR in August 2021 in the province decreased by 0.64 percentage points from 7.57% in August of the previous year.

The decrease in Maluku's OUR was due to a decrease in the number of working-age people affected by Covid-19 to only 127,690 or 9.76% of the total working-age population in August 2021. In August 2020, the number of working-age people affected by Covid-19 reached 196,510 or 15.24% of the total working-age population.

In August 2021, there were 7,490 unemployed people in Maluku due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. There were 6,530 people temporarily unemployed due to Covid-19, and 112,000 employed people experienced reduced working hours. Meanwhile, 1,650 people were no longer part of the workforce due to Covid-19.

(read: Formal Sector Absorption, Jakarta's Unemployment Rate Decreased Drastically in August 2021)