Jobs, cost of living the main concerns of Indonesian youth

This large voting segment wants next president to tackle bread-and-butter issues

- Linda Yulisman

JAKARTA - On weekdays, production assistant Dandy Febriansyah puts in long hours at a start-up in Jakarta. And on weekends, he is a freelance photographer.

All this in a bid to make ends meet and support his ageing mother and brother, who was recently laid off.

For the 24-year-old, job security and better employment prospects are at the forefront of his mind as he mulls over which candidate to vote for in the Feb 14 presidential election.

"Certainly, I want a job with a decent pay," said Mr Dandy, who dropped out of university in 2020 due to tight finances.

He earns about five million rupiah (S$430) from his full-time job, around the minimum monthly wage in Jakarta.

"I am scared of losing my job because the start-up businesses in Indonesia are now unstable. I am worried because even big start-ups have laid off a lot of their staff," he said.

Meanwhile, university student Aditya Teguh Anandar, 19, is tightening his belt to survive on his monthly scholarship stipend of one million rupiah. Over the past few months, he has tried to cook more at home, or choose cheaper options when he eats out - for example, ordering tempeh, which is made of fermented soya bean, and vegetable dishes instead of eggs and fish.

Faced with a bleak job market and increasing cost of living, many young voters like Mr Dandy and Mr Aditya are looking to the incoming president to tackle the bread-andbutter issues, and ideological concerns like climate change.

And with over half of the roughly 205 million electorate aged 17 to 40, addressing the interests of these young voters will be the key to victory for any presidential candidate, analysts said.