Indonesia’s labor market demonstrated robust growth between August 2025 and August 2026, with an increase of 1.44 million employed individuals, pushing the total number of employed people to 147.99 million, as per the latest national employment statistics. This growth reflects a positive trend in the country’s employment landscape.
The labor force in Indonesia also expanded during this period, reaching 155.37 million, an increase of approximately 1.37 million compared to the previous year. Despite this expansion, the labor force participation rate saw a slight decline, standing at 70.33% in August 2026, down from 70.59% the previous year. Male participation was significantly higher at 84.16%, compared to 56.37% for women.
Agriculture continued to be the largest employment sector, comprising 28.20% of the workforce. The wholesale and retail trade sector followed with 17.86%, and manufacturing employed 13.75% of workers, indicating the diverse nature of employment across different sectors in the country.
In terms of unemployment, Indonesia witnessed an improvement. The number of unemployed individuals decreased by 77,000, bringing the total to 7.38 million. This reduction resulted in the national unemployment rate falling to 4.75%, a decrease of 0.09 percentage points from the rate recorded in August 2025.