While having a growing economy and a labour market shifting from agriculture to the more profitable service sector, Indonesia still suffers from relatively high unemployment rates.
After centuries of the Indonesian employment sector being dominated by agriculture, it is now the service sector that takes up almost half of the total labour force. Aided by a growing economy and tourism, the Indonesian job market is now mostly service sector based and any job-seeking expats should look to this sector for the most opportunities.
Nonetheless, current employment prospects for foreigners in Indonesia are still not very high due to stringent laws on employing workers from abroad. This coupled with a high unemployment rate means that it will be difficult to find employment in Indonesia for a foreign worker. Indonesian government policy is thus very clear that employers must not hire a foreigner for a job that an Indonesian can do as well. Recent figures depict an 8.4% unemployment rate with 10% of these being trained professionals. Therefore, unless a specific professional being hired to go to Indonesia, foreign workers will struggle to find employment.
However, sources show that as of 2012, 79% of businesses will be looking to expand and that will equate to 27% of businesses looking to employ new staff. Thus while the unemployment levels are still high, showing that in 2012 there was a 6.3% unemployment rate, forecasts demonstrate that by 2016 this will drop to 4.7%. However, one must be wary of these official figures as over 30 million underemployed persons are not included in the official count. Therefore, it is easier if you are looking to work in a specific sector, rather than moving to Indonesia in hope of finding employment.