Mass firing, less hiring: Can Indonesia see hope in a grim job market?

Rizki, a former content specialist at an Indonesia-based startup, had been looking for work relentlessly after being abruptly laid off by his company in July after three years in the job.

Well aware that the economic downturn had led to a hiring freeze in many companies, the father of two knew that his chances of landing a new job any time soon were pretty slim. But the recent mass layoff by GoTo killed off any glimmer of hope he had.

A job fair held by the Central Jakarta Administration in August / Photo credit: Central Jakarta Administration

“Those people from GoTo are going to be in demand. It’s going to be almost impossible to compete with them,” he says.

While it may sound like an exaggeration, Rizki is not entirely wrong.

Heavily funded tech companies in Indonesia like GoTo, Shopee, and Ruangguru had offered highly competitive salaries, attracting the country’s best and most promising talent.

When these firms recently announced significant job cuts, other startups were quick to capitalize on the sudden supply of top tech talent.

“In fact, we have made a list of GoTo alumni to help our clients headhunt them,” says one recruiter, who asked to remain anonymous.

Given the current business climate, a large chunk of retrenched GoTo employees are still likely to fall into the widening pool of tech talent facing the possibility of prolonged unemployment.

Industry players say this is a reality that will be tough for many in the immediate future but may benefit the ecosystem in the long term.

Opportunities with fintech, startups that recently raised funds

The obvious pain for many of these individuals will be the possibility that they may be out of a job for quite a while.

Recruitment firms Tech in Asia spoke to confirm that many companies are either cutting back on hiring or pausing it altogether.

While companies generally tend to pause their hiring activities in the final quarter of the year, the situation in 2022 has been compounded by businesses being cautious in the face of a global economic downturn, says Nurul Ramadani Nasution, assistant head of the tech division at recruitment firm Monroe Consulting Group.

She explains that employers are likely to stop hiring for roles like sales, customer success, and marketing, which are strongly linked to a healthy market. However, some companies are still cautiously on the hunt for roles in software development, mobile engineering, devOps, product managers, and data roles.

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