Labor Employment Polemic Solution Through Circular Letter: Is…

Labor Employment Polemic Solution Through Circular Letter: Is it Appropriate?

By Nicholas Martua Siagian

11 Jun 2025 18:40 WIB 11 June 2025 18:40 WIB 6 minutes reading time: 6 minutes 2 read

Updated: 19 Jan 2026 18:45 WIB 19 January 2026 18:45 WIB

Discussing the effectiveness of using Circular Letters as a policy of the Minister of Manpower

Labor Employment Polemic Solution Through Circular Letter: Is it Appropriate?

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Table of Contents

Polemic on the Use of SE
Circulars Are Not Regulations
From what I understand, circular letters are not a long-term answer to our labor crisis. In an emergency, circular letters can indeed be used as a temporary measure. However, for the sustainability and enforceability of legal norms, the government is obliged to draw up hierarchical, substantive, and binding regulations. Circular Letters, although quick and easy to issue, do not have the legal force necessary to regulate the wider community, especially when faced with increasingly complex and often exploitative labor practices. Failure to do so will only make us continue to repeat the cycle of

Legal Literacy - Today, our country is going through a phase that can be said to be "not okay." Global economic turmoil, geopolitical conflicts, and the slow flow of international investment have put pressure on national economic performance. All of this is not only recorded in macroeconomic figures, but has become a real social reality: increasing unemployment, job insecurity, and increasing social vulnerability for the productive age group.

Speaking of employment, we are faced with a phenomenon that is difficult to ignore: mass layoffs in various industrial sectors. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that in the first quarter of 2025, Indonesia's economic growth only reached 4.87 percent, a decrease compared to 5.11 percent in the same period the previous year. At the same time, in February 2025, the Open Unemployment Rate (TPT) was at 4.76 percent, equivalent to 7.2 million people. These figures show that economic turnover is not strong enough to absorb large numbers of workers.

Even more worrying is the phenomenon of educated unemployment. Many young college graduates are now trapped in a condition of overqualified but underemployed. The World Bank notes that 13.9 percent of Indonesian youth are unemployed—the highest figure in Southeast Asia. Even according to a CELIOS report, 33.4 percent of the unemployed are currently in a state of “despair” looking for work (hopeless job). This is a strong signal that our employment system is experiencing structural stagnation.

Unfortunately, our policy responses are still too ritualistic. Many job training programs appear more as ceremonial projects than concrete solutions. Vocational education curricula are not synchronized with industry needs. Inconsistencies in employment regulations make employers hesitant to recruit, while workers feel unprotected.

Amidst these various pressures, crucial issues such as the withholding of diplomas by companies, recruitment discrimination, sudden layoffs, minimum wages and gender equality have become the public's sharp focus. This polemic clarifies that there is a large gap between ideal employment law and practices that take place in the field.