Indonesian rural youth transitions: employment, mobility and the future of agriculture

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the dynamics of Indonesian rural youth transitions.1 As in other countries, Indonesian rural youth’s transition to adulthood is being prolonged as they remain longer enrolled in education, their average age at first marriage rises, and their entry into the labour force is postponed. Each new generation of rural young men and women has grown up better educated than their parents. This however has not been matched with expansion of employment opportunities for educated youth, and one-third of Indonesians aged 15-24 in rural areas are openly unemployed. In such situations the young may be forced to improvise their own survival strategies. It is not surprising, then to see increasing emphasis on promotion of ‘entrepreneurial’ skills in national youth policy, education policy, and World Bank and ILO policy discourse. There is little evidence that these policies increase employment prospects or earnings.