Jakarta’s 3-in-1 (Job) Policy
- KANOPI FEB UI
- Oct 6
- 5 min read
Sumber: dokpri
It was past 5 pm and your parents had dragged you into the car to join them for an evening run of errands. The tall buildings and street sellers in between the lanes became your main view. The road slowed to a police checkpoint and the officer observed the amount of people in each car, a realization of the city’s 3-in-1 traffic rule. After the car was waved through, the tension eased, but a new knot formed in your stomach. Even though this policy is no longer on the roads of Jakarta, a new 3-in-1 (job) policy is visible in its people. You glanced at your father who juggles freelance contracts and your mother running a side hustle just to pay for your lunch. The memory of the police observation clicked into place: it wasn't the police checking for rule-breakers, but the feeling that something else was observing them, checking to see if they were productive enough just to keep the car—and the family moving forward.
The Hidden Tax on Productivity
When an individual juggles between different jobs, it creates a significant economic inefficiency: the possibility of creating transaction costs. This encapsulates the hidden costs that can create economic opportunities which include how much energy and time that an individual spends to find a middle ground between their needs and what the employer can provide. Sadly, in the gig economy, these hidden costs are charged to the individual worker, and they slowly multiply with every additional gig (Coase, 1937).
Starting their day early with becoming an online driver, coming back home to bake a birthday cake then ending the day with an online tutoring. Three different clients, three different fields, and three sources of income. However, the cognitive load that an individual can handle with the constant field-switching can get overwhelming. The increasing number of availability for jobs in digital platforms goes parallel with the intense competition. Workers have complained about the “need to always be available” within this field (ILO, 2021). Hence, this is the stemroot to the hustle that can become economically inefficient. A majority of a worker’s energy in investing into managing different jobs rather than staying focused on skill-building work. This makes them run a marathon whose finish line keeps on moving.
The Change in Talent Pool: A Specialization Deficit
An individual might rake in more income with the additional hustles, however there is a long-term cost that they have to pay: a human capital crisis. The human capital theory hypothesises that knowledge, skills, and experience are the mandatory investments to yield higher earnings in the future (Becker, 1975). With one individual handling 3 jobs simultaneously, it creates a trade-off where workers forcefully put forward the need to survive rather than long-term development of valuable skills.
This is how a skill mismatch is born. Often, the youth of Jakarta can spend extra hours a day on a ride-hailing app to keep a roof over their heads, but they lose the chance to utilize these hours to engage in specialized training that would be more financially rewarding in time to come. It’s important to prioritize the specialization of skills, yet the current condition pushes workers in the gig economies to do the opposite (World Bank, 2019). This issue spreads worldwide, shown by the projected 85 million jobs that can be left unattended because of the shortage of skilled workers, whereas 44% of workers' core skills can be disrupted (World Economic Forum, 2020). The gig workers who focus on low-skilled tasks are prevented from developing the deep expertise required for higher-paying roles, hence their abilities stay stagnant and their earning potential capped.
The Government Initiative as a Foundation
Empowered people do start from the institutions. Therefore, we won’t be separated by the support of the government as a foundation. The Jakarta government has shown their concern regarding the skills mismatch within its people, hence the start of programs to tackle this issue. One of them is Pusat Pelatihan Kerja Pengembangan Industri, which is a free program to equip our youths with skills to upgrade their competence. Digitalization has also been reinforced, seen from the market digitalization competitions and the opening of Jakarta Creative Hub as a space to practice the digital economy. By prioritizing efforts to close the digital divide, developing economies like Indonesia could boost their GDP by up to 5%
(McKinsey Global Institute, 2021).
Slowly but surely, these programs are meant to shape a critical and entrepreneurial mindset. They empower job-creators, equipping a generation with the agility needed in a rapidly changing economy. The success of these programs is reflected in their reach and popularity, demonstrating a significant public investment in the potential of Jakarta's youth. They have successfully ignited the spark of ambition and provided the initial toolkit for participation in the modern marketplace. This established infrastructure and trust in government-led upskilling is an invaluable asset. It provides the perfect platform on which to build the next, more specialized layer: the architecture for a mastery economy.
Rewriting the Narrative to a Mastery Economy
The shift can begin by promoting apprenticeships that are more demand-driven. Strengthening relationships within this industry can have a visible stance of priority, therefore the government can step beyond workshops and conclude apprenticeship programs in various sectors like advanced technology. This model can decrease the skill mismatch and give opportunities to making a clear highway to quality jobs (OECD, 2021). Policies should be welcoming to freelancers and making sure that they have a social net to keep them afloat. Investment within certified training could also encourage higher-quality positions in the career ladder. Lastly, what youths can do is to stop overglorifying the hustle and focus on the mastery of a skill.
Jakarta’s youths aren’t lazy, they simply are navigating the everchanging economic system, the 3-in-1 (job) policy becoming one of them. The current programs given have created a guideline to equip them to survive, however sustaining these efforts would be what create a master economy–a system where training programs and opportunities to a stable career are accessible for each and every one of us. By executing this strategic pivot, Jakarta can transform its dynamic youth from survivors of the gig economy into architects of their own prosperous futures.
References
Becker, G. S. (1975). Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education. University of Chicago Press.
Coase, R. H. (1937). The Nature of the Firm. Economica, 4(16), 386–405.
International Labour Organization. (2021). World Employment and Social Outlook: The role of digital labour platforms in transforming the world of work.
McKinsey Global Institute. (2021). The future of work after COVID-19
OECD. (2021). Career Guidance for Adults in a Changing World of Work
World Bank. (2019). World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2019
World Bank. (2020). The COVID-19 Pandemic: Shocks to Education and Policy Responses.
World Economic Forum. (2020). The Future of Jobs Report 2020
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