Indonesian Unemployment Rates from the Soeharto to Jokowi Eras

Indonesia's unemployment rate has fluctuated over the past four decades, from the Soeharto to the Jokowi era.

This is recorded in the World Economic Outlook database released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Soeharto served as president starting in 1966. However, the IMF only began collecting data on Indonesian unemployment from 1984.

During Soeharto's era, in 1984, the proportion of the Indonesian workforce that was unemployed was only 1.6%, the lowest in history as recorded by the IMF.

However, after that, the unemployment trend gradually increased. By the time Soeharto stepped down in 1998, national unemployment had reached around 5%.

Then, at the beginning of the Reformasi era, when B.J. Habibie was president (1998-1999), the proportion of the unemployed workforce rose to around 6%.

The upward trend continued during the presidencies of Abdurrahman Wahid (1999-2001) and Megawati Soekarnoputri (2001-2004), reaching almost 10%.

At the beginning of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's (SBY) administration, the figure continued to rise, reaching 11% in 2005, the highest record in history as recorded by the IMF.

However, by the end of SBY's term (2004-2014), the unemployment rate had fallen significantly to around 6%.

After entering the Jokowi era (2014-2024), the proportion of the unemployed workforce fluctuated between 5% and 7%.

The most drastic increase in unemployment during Jokowi's era occurred in 2020, triggered by the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused a global economic slowdown. The figure only began to decline from 2021, along with the world's recovery from the pandemic's impact.

The IMF projects that Indonesia's unemployment rate at the end of Jokowi's term in 2024 could reach 5.2%, 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous year.