PORTALJABAR, BANDUNG CITY - Over the next two days, starting from 21-22 November 2023, the Bandung City Employment Service (Disnaker) is holding a Job Fair for the second time in 2023. This time the Job Fair will be held at Kiara Artha Park from 08.00-16.00 WIB .

Head of the Bandung City Manpower Office, Andri Darusman, explained that there are 4,000 job vacancies available and spread across 43 companies and banks.

"The hope is that this job fair can reduce the open unemployment rate in Bandung City. Before the pandemic, the figure reached 8.11 percent or 130,000 people," he said.

Then, when the pandemic occurred at the end of 2021, the unemployment rate rose significantly to 11.46 percent or 153,000 people. Andri said the reason was because many companies had collapsed due to the pandemic.

"Thank God, in mid-2022 we will start to be offline, we will be labor intensive. At the end of 2022 the unemployment rate will decrease to 9.5 percent or 137,000 people. Hopefully this year the open unemployment rate in the city of Bandung will decrease to 8.8 percent," he said.

The job fair held this November, continued Andri, is the second in 2023. In 2022, employment from the results of the job fair will be 59 percent. Then, finally in wave 1 of the 2023 Job Fair, as many as 70 percent of participants were accepted for work.

He added that this time the target is at least the unemployment rate in the city of Bandung can decrease again to before the pandemic. To date, 17,000 job seekers have registered.

"Then this time the Job Fair was held in a hybrid manner. People don't need to come to the event venue, they can scan the barcode to submit the requirements online," he said.

If applicants want to visit directly to ask the target company for more details, please come to Kiara Artha Park. All processes are carried out for free.

"We are making a hybrid to avoid crowding like last year. People from outside the city of Bandung can also participate. We are giving freedom to companies to choose prospective workers according to their needs," he said

Apart from the job fair, other efforts are being made by the Bandung City Government (Pemkot) to reduce the level of open unemployment by conducting training which is carried out based on competency standards.

"For example, a make-up artist (MUA) wants to increase their rating, we will hold a competency test. If they pass, they can be promoted to class. There is also community-based training, for example barista, barbershop, welding, pastry, and so on," he said.

Proposals for training for the community come from deliberations on development plans in their respective regions or from the recess of members of the Bandung City DPRD in order to absorb the direct aspirations of the community.

"The community also hopes that this training can open up new entrepreneurial opportunities. Because one of the duties of the Manpower Office is also to improve skills through the creative economy," he said.

This service can be accessed via the New Bimma application. There are 30 employment services such as training lists, complaints, services for making pre-employment cards or yellow cards. This application has also been integrated with the Sadayana platform.

"But it is only intended for people with Bandung City ID cards," he said.

Andri appealed to all prospective workers to prepare a complete portfolio and other application requirements. Also follow locker information from official sources.

"We also always share other locker information on the Manpower Department's social media. Be careful with fake locker information, it's best to just follow the information from the official account," he said. (Diskominfo Bandung City/UPI)