PORTALJABAR, BANDUNG CITY - The Bandung City Open Unemployment Rate (TPT) shows a positive figure, namely decreasing every year. This shows the performance of the Bandung City Government (Pemkot) in reducing poverty rates increasingly significantly. This was conveyed by the Regional Secretary of Bandung City, Ema Sumarna on the sidelines of the Job Fair at Kiara Artha, Tuesday (21/11/2023).

"The recovery process from the COVID-19 pandemic in Bandung City has left the Open Unemployment Rate (TPT) for Bandung City in 2023 currently at 8.83 percent," he said.

This Job Fair is the second in 2023 for 2 days, namely on 21-22 November 2023, which was attended by 41 companies with 4,200 vacancies.

According to Ema, this is an effort by the government and companies to contribute to reducing poverty.

"This is the second implementation in one year. This is also thanks to the support of the DPRD, especially at that time we were trying to restore the economy to bounce back after the pandemic," he said.

Currently, continued Ema, there are 4,200 vacancies from 41 companies in the city of Bandung.

He explained that the government's job is to facilitate people in getting jobs. So it requires continued collaboration from various companies.

"The government's task is to facilitate, this is collaboration. We promise that next year we can do it 3 to 4 times. Apart from that, it's not just 41 companies, because there is a potential for 3,000 companies in Bandung. Gradually we invite them to contribute to providing opportunities for the residents who "I didn't get a job at that time," he said.

Chairman of the Bandung City DPRD, Tedy Rusmawan, appreciated the activities organized by the Manpower Office. Because the government provides space for people to get jobs.

"Thank you to the Bandung City Government, for providing facilities for the community to provide job opportunities," he said.

He encouraged that in the future the implementation could also be carried out with university elements, so that it would be more focused on job seekers.

"We continue to encourage collaboration with job fair organizers in the future. Such as with universities that can hold job fairs," he said.

Tedy hopes that the more job fairs there are, the wider the job opportunities that can be utilized by the community.

Head of the Bandung City Employment Service, Andri Darusman, revealed that the unemployment rate in Bandung City until August 2023 had decreased to 8.83 percent, previously when the COVID-19 pandemic reached 11.46 percent.

"During the pandemic, it was 11.46 percent or more or less 153,500 people. At the end of 2022, BPS results dropped to 9.5 percent or 137,000 people who needed work. Until August 2023, it decreased to 8.8 percent. Hopefully at least it will decrease again when "before COVID-19, the open unemployment rate was 8.11 percent in Bandung City," he said.

The purpose of implementing the job fair, continued Andri, is to reduce unemployment in the city of Bandung and facilitate job seekers to get jobs according to their competencies.

"This also helps companies to get professionally qualified workers according to their needs," he said.

One of the job seekers, Rizwan Maulana, admitted that he was helped by the implementation of the current job fair.

He said that the facilities provided by the government were a benefit for job seekers.

"Thank God it helped, because there are 40 companies. Hopefully someone will get involved, so I can work," he said.

Rizwan, who graduated from vocational school majoring in electrical engineering, took advantage of the moment to submit an application that was appropriate to the field he was studying.

"I just submitted it to six companies. Hopefully it will work as soon as possible," he said. (rdp*)