Why Indonesia's Young Professionals Are Leaving, and What Their Departure Means at Home

More Young Indonesians Are Looking Abroad for Work

Australia granted Indonesians 4,285 Working Holiday Visas in 2023-2024, up from 2,984 in 2022-2023, according to Australia's Department of Home Affairs. The increase of 1,301 visas, or about 44%, offers one measure of the growing interest among young Indonesians in finding work overseas. Indonesians now represent the largest citizenship group in Australia's Working Holiday Visa program.

Behind those numbers are graduates struggling to find jobs, workers seeking better pay and young professionals looking for careers they feel unable to build at home. Their departure is feeding concern about brain drain: the loss of educated and skilled people whose work could otherwise support Indonesia's economy.

The social media hashtag #KaburAjaDulu, meaning "Just get out first," captures frustration with economic conditions and the domestic job market. For some young Indonesians, leaving offers a route into employment. For others, it offers international experience and a chance to advance beyond the opportunities available to them at home.

Indonesia faces a difficult balance. Work abroad can improve migrants' lives and provide money for their families. A prolonged departure of skilled people could also weaken the country's ability to create jobs, develop technology and meet its economic ambitions for 2045.

A Political Science Graduate Finds Factory Work

Fikri Haikal, a political science graduate aged 25, moved to Australia through the Working Holiday Visa program after failing to secure a scholarship for further study and receiving no job offers in Indonesia. His search for an opportunity took him into work far removed from his degree.

Fikri now works in a poultry factory. Describing the unexpected direction his working life had taken, he said:

I never thought I would be a factory worker,

Australia's labor shortages made finding work easier than it had been in Indonesia, he explained. His experience shows why the availability of a job can become the immediate priority for a graduate, even when the work differs from the career originally imagined.

Fikri's move brings a personal dimension to the visa figures. At home, neither further study nor employment had opened a route forward for him. In Australia, demand for workers gave him an opportunity to earn a living, although in an occupation he had not expected to enter.

A Hospitality Career Moves Beyond Bali

Viona Maharani left Indonesia with a different starting point. A graduate of a vocational tourism college in Bali, she already had experience at several hotels with five stars. She moved to the United States for an internship in the hospitality industry, seeking career development and international exposure.

Viona described working abroad as an opportunity she wanted to continue pursuing, whether in the United States or elsewhere:

I will highly value opportunities to keep enriching my experience of working abroad, whether that continues in the United States or another country,

Her experience highlights another reason skilled Indonesians leave. The decision can be about gaining knowledge and moving forward professionally, alongside the search for employment itself. Fikri sought an opening after finding none at home; Viona sought to build on experience she had already gained in Bali.

Why Domestic Opportunities Are Falling Short

Limited job opportunities, stagnant wages and a lack of career advancement are among the pressures driving educated Indonesians to look overseas. Graduates can struggle to find suitable employment, particularly in the formal sector, while economic uncertainty makes their prospects harder to judge.

Indonesia's shrinking share of formal employment and the rise of informal work add to those concerns. The central problem is the economy's ability to absorb skilled workers into suitable jobs. Completing an education does not necessarily lead to an opening where a graduate can use that training and develop a career.

Corruption and extortion also disrupt the business environment, discouraging investment by both Indonesian and foreign businesses. Investment matters to the employment picture because businesses need reasons to establish operations, expand and hire. When investment is discouraged, the task of creating opportunities for graduates becomes harder.

These pressures connect the choices of individual workers with conditions across the economy. Higher wages and an improved quality of life abroad become more attractive when domestic work is difficult to find or offers little room for advancement.

Youth Unemployment Exceeds the National Rate

The International Labour Organization put Indonesia's youth unemployment rate at 13.1% in 2024, higher than in India, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. A recent Statistics Indonesia survey gave a higher figure of 16.16%, compared with a national unemployment rate of 4.76%.

Using the Statistics Indonesia figures, the youth rate was about 3.4 times the national rate. In simple terms, unemployment was much more common among young people than across the workforce as a whole. That gap helps explain why younger Indonesians can experience the job market differently from what the national figure alone might suggest.

The two organizations give different youth unemployment figures, but both place the rate above one in ten. For young people deciding whether to remain in Indonesia, the immediate issue is finding a realistic route into work and, eventually, a career with room to progress.

What Indonesia Risks Losing

Mohammad Faisal, executive director of the Centre of Reform on Economics, or CORE Indonesia, warned that a prolonged loss of talent could affect more than the number of workers available. Skilled people also help businesses grow, attract investment and develop technology.

Faisal described the potential cost to Indonesia's economy:

A prolonged brain drain could lead to Indonesia losing its best talent, who would otherwise contribute to job creation at home by helping to attract investment and driving technological progress,

His warning identifies a wider employment risk. A skilled person's contribution can extend beyond the job they hold to the jobs and opportunities they help create for others. Losing that contribution could make it harder to improve the domestic prospects that are encouraging people to leave.

Tadjuddin Noer Effendi, a labor expert at Gadjah Mada University, also warned of possible shortages in health, technology and education. Those sectors depend on trained workers, making the retention of skills a concern for services as well as economic growth.

The Challenge to Golden Indonesia 2045

Indonesia's Golden Indonesia vision aims to make the country one of the world's largest economies by 2045. Tadjuddin expressed skepticism about that ambition in the face of skilled emigration and the risk of labor shortages in critical sectors.

His concern also involves Indonesia's demographic advantage, the economic opportunity offered by having a large population of people able to work. That advantage depends on people finding productive employment and contributing their skills at home.

Tadjuddin cautioned that the departure of skilled workers could accelerate the transition toward an aging population before Indonesia achieves widespread prosperity. He described this danger as a "demographic paradox": the country could grow older before enough of its population becomes prosperous.

The challenge links today's employment decisions to the 2045 ambition. Young people need opportunities now, while Indonesia's economic plans depend on retaining and developing the abilities of that same generation.

Money Sent Home Offers an Immediate Benefit

Indonesians working abroad also provide substantial support to the economy at home. According to the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency, remittance inflows rose 13% in 2024 to 253 trillion rupiah, about US$15.57 billion.

Remittances are money migrants send home. Those transfers support families and local economies across Indonesia and contribute to the country's foreign exchange reserves. They are an immediate economic benefit from employment overseas, even while the departure of skilled workers creates concerns about domestic capacity.

Indonesia therefore has more than one interest to consider. Families can benefit from money earned abroad, while employers and public services need people with the skills to work at home. The policy challenge includes supporting the benefits of migration while making a domestic career more attractive.

Turning Overseas Experience Into Opportunities at Home

Tadjuddin argued that Indonesia could gain from migration if skilled citizens returned with the experience and knowledge they had acquired abroad. This is the idea behind brain gain: overseas work can become a source of skills for the home country when people bring that learning back.

He described the value of encouraging a return:

If the government can encourage Indonesians living abroad to return, it will be a huge gain, as they bring valuable experience and knowledge from overseas,

Incentives and infrastructure that attract skilled Indonesians home could help turn that experience into innovation and economic growth. Better domestic employment prospects remain central to that effort, because returning professionals also need opportunities to use what they have learned.

Dr. Hempri Suyatna of Universitas Gadjah Mada called for closer alignment between education and the job market. Programs such as Kampus Merdeka seek to prepare students for employment through internships and entrepreneurship, but challenges remain in turning those activities into real job opportunities.

Suyatna also advocated a comprehensive national strategy to map demand for workers and match it with graduates' skills, while addressing nepotism in hiring. Mapping demand means identifying the jobs employers need filled and the abilities those jobs require, so education and training can better prepare students for available work.

The proposals connect several parts of the problem: preparation for employment, access to hiring, investment and opportunities for advancement. Improving the domestic job market, supporting innovation and creating a more attractive investment climate are central to retaining talent and encouraging experienced Indonesians to return.

Key Points

• Australia granted Indonesians 4,285 Working Holiday Visas in 2023-2024, up from 2,984 the previous year.
• Limited job openings, stagnant wages, economic uncertainty and restricted career advancement are encouraging young professionals to seek work abroad.
• The International Labour Organization put youth unemployment at 13.1% in 2024; Statistics Indonesia reported 16.16%, against a national rate of 4.76%.
• Faisal and Tadjuddin warned that continued talent losses could weaken job creation, technological progress and staffing in health, technology and education.
• Remittance inflows rose 13% to 253 trillion rupiah in 2024, supporting families and local economies.
• Proposals include closer links between education and employment, fairer hiring, a better investment climate and measures to attract skilled Indonesians home.