May 5, 2025
JAKARTA – An unprecedented crowd of hopeful jobseekers have flocked to Jakarta City Hall in the past few weeks to apply for jobs as sanitation workers, highlighting mounting concerns over unemployment and rising layoffs in the capital.
The Jakarta administration has allocated around 1,100 jobs in the Public Facility Maintenance Agency (PPSU) this year, and around 7,000 people have applied in just two days after the recruitment began on April 22. Another 1,000 new applications were recorded last week.
With their bright orange uniforms, sanitation workers, popularly known as the “orange troops”, are easy to recognize throughout every street, park and anywhere near water channels in Jakarta. They play major roles in cleaning and maintaining public services in the city.
The jobs require only a primary school education and basic reading and writing skills. Only registered Jakarta residents aged from 18 to 58 are eligible for the jobs.
Attracting university graduates
Despite the fact that the jobs do not require a lot of formal schooling, the recruitment drive attracts university graduates, including 37-year-old Atika Nurmalasari from Duren Sawit, East Jakarta.
On one afternoon at City Hall last week, Atika and her husband submitted the required paperwork for the same janitorial position. If hired, they will work one of three eight-hour shifts per day.
“It’s for financial reasons, that is why we applied for the job. These days, it is hard to find one that pays enough to cover our children’s bills,” Atika said on Tuesday.
Atika, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Jakarta’s Institute of Economic Sciences (STIE), lost her clerical job at a furniture company after her two-year contract expired.
“I can see that this city job is way more relaxing anyway, and I guess the salary is quite the same as my previous role,” she said. “I know that the competition will be stiff, considering thousands of people have applied. But I put my hopes high.”
Jakarta offers some Rp 5.3 million (US$316) monthly income for PPSU workers, with additional benefits, including health insurance and holiday allowances.
These benefits appeal to Jakartans as currently many people work in informal sectors without proper pay and insurance.
Read also: Orange troops, keeping city clean while people keep littering
Chairul Farhan, a 20-year-old applicant who holds a high school diploma, said he believed that a position as a city janitor would earn him more money as well as a steady job, compared to his previous employment at a bakery chain.
If he passes the recruitment, Chairul will work under a three-year contract that might be extended based on results of evaluation by the city administration.
“I will take this offer because it’s hard to get a job nowadays,” said Chairul who lives in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.
No better option
Labor expert Tadjuddin Noer Effendi at Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University attributed the phenomenon with the surge of unemployment and layoffs in the city.
“Currently, many people are craving for jobs. When the offer from the city administration is decent, even university graduates will apply for such a job,” Tadjuddin said.
Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded that as of August 2024, Jakarta has the sixth highest unemployment rate in the country, slightly higher than the number in February of last year.
Data from the Manpower Ministry meanwhile revealed that in the first two months of this year, there had been 2,650 layoffs in Jakarta, only less than those in Riau and Central Java.
Tadjuddin said the current economic situation makes people less selective about applying for jobs, let alone choosing employment that matches their skills. “So, enthusiasm for the jobs from the city administration is expected in this case.”