Reemployment during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia: What kinds of skill sets are needed?

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the labor market leading to significant unemployment. This study explores the 2019, 2020, and 2021 National Labor Force Survey (Sakernas) to examine the labor market changes and the relationship between workers’ skill sets, such as hard skills (vocational education), soft skills, and digital literacy and reemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our descriptive statistics analysis confirms that the scarring effect exists as the share of the informal sector increases by around 4.5 percentage points during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, our estimations using the Bivariate Probit Model show that social skills and digital literacy are important determinants for reemployment at the national level. In contrast, vocational education and problem-solving skills are statistically insignificant. Workers with social skills tend to have a higher probability of being reemployed, by 41% in 2020 and 27% in 2021, compared to workers without any. Our study also finds a heterogenous relationship between skill sets and reemployment. Social skill is significantly correlated with reemployment in an urban area, Java-Bali, and young workers in the 15–24 age group. In addition, vocational education is crucial for reemployment, especially among young workers during the economic recovery period in 2021. Our study suggests that the government should focus on preparing the correct and relevant skill sets for young workers aged 15–24 to respond to the significant demand changes in the post-pandemic labor market.