Resumen

Illustrates, with labour force survey data spanning over 25 years, that much unemployment in a young and rapidly growing developing country, such as Indonesia before the crisis, was transitional. Shows that educated unemployment was not a problem in Indonesia, as was believed by many Indonesian policy makers and academics. Underemployment, when defined in terms of involuntarily working shorter hours, was also not an employment issue. Working for long hours for little pay, misleadingly sometimes termed underemployment, remains a serious problem that the government should worry about.