Jakarta. The Indonesian government is preparing to launch a nationwide paid internship program for fresh university graduates, offering them six months of work experience with minimum wages as part of broader efforts to tackle unemployment.

The initiative, set to begin on October 15, will initially cover around 20,000 participants, who can register through the Manpower Ministry’s online platform at siapkerja.kemnaker.go.id.

“We have set up a platform for the ‘ready for work’ program, and the technical details are being finalized before the launch date,” Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto told reporters in Jakarta. He said the platform is integrated with the Higher Education, Science, and Technology Ministry’s database to better match fresh graduates with jobs relevant to their academic background.

Under the scheme, businesses will be encouraged to list vacancies and manpower needs on the platform, while interns will receive a monthly wage of Rp 3.3 million ($198) funded by the state. The government has allocated an initial Rp198 billion ($11.9 million) for the program.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia’s labor force stood at 153 million as of February 2025, with 145.8 million employed -- up by 3.59 million year-on-year. The open unemployment rate declined slightly to 4.76 percent, while the average minimum wage in the same period was Rp 3.09 million.

Concerns Over Limited Impact
Despite its promise, experts have raised concerns about the program’s limited scale.

“There are around 1 million university graduates who remain unemployed, meaning this internship program will only cover about 2 percent of them,” said Wisnu Setiadi Nugroho, an economist from Gadjah Mada University.

He argued that without sustainability and wider coverage, the program’s impact would be marginal. Longer-term solutions, he added, include fiscal incentives for businesses, large-scale vocational training aligned with industry demands, and job creation in agriculture and maritime industries to bolster both employment and food security.

Indonesia’s unemployment rate of 4.76 percent is relatively moderate compared with its Southeast Asian peers. According to the International Labour Organization and ASEAN labor statistics, Thailand and Vietnam consistently report some of the lowest unemployment rates in the region -- below 2 percent. Malaysia and the Philippines hover around 3-4 percent, while Indonesia sits slightly higher but remains lower than regional outliers such as Brunei, where unemployment has exceeded 6 percent in recent years.