Blue-collar workers are identical to “rough jobs”. This type of work is quite very available and required in every business environment – some are temporary, outsourced, also permanent. The tendency of this segment is filled with low skill workers, people who have minimal competence – generally due to poor access to education. According to 2019’s BPS data, low-skilled workers dominate the informal sector by 57.27%.
As of the BPS survey, in August 2019, the average informal worker raised 1.4 million for income per month. In some cities, the number is equivalent to the UMR, but in big cities like Jakarta or Surabaya, it is figured far lower the UMR. In fact, the economic gap is indeed a rooted issue in the country.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, they also became one of the most affected groups, especially in the labor-intensive sector or who needed human movements to carry out duties.
Digital startup spots an opportunity
The DNA of digital startups is to produce solutions to specific problems in society. Some founders took the initiative to streamline the gap in blue-collar workers. The innovations are quite diverse, from bridging access between businesses (which require labor) with workers to helping provide instant education that can support their efforts.
Kurniawan Santoso is one of them. He is the Founder & CEO of Job2Go, a job marketplace portal/application that focuses on blue-collar jobs. He said the blue-collar market share which refers to the group of workers with limited and informal skills is the largest segment of the entire workforce population in Indonesia, almost all business sectors. This segment will continue to be the backbone of the economic revival, including driving the post-pandemic economy.
Job2GO service is represented in a marketplace platform based on websites and mobile applications. Employers and prospective workers can meet on the platform. The latest data revealed, they already accommodate 15 thousand users, with 500 companies offering various vacancies. The types of work offered include salespeople, merchandising, SPG, marketing staff, administrative staff, and others.
Steven Chu, Detin Melati, and Komala Surya also realize this opportunity. With a platform called Heikaku, they present a job portal that connects SMEs with workers. Until the first quarter of 2020, they have helped 2 thousand SMEs with more than 8 thousand job advertisements. In the release, Heikaku team said, “The wider opportunity lies in vacancies such as admin, sales, drafter, telemarketing, marketing, SPG and others. About 87% of applicants in Heikaku are high school / vocational high school graduates.”
In addition to both marketplaces above, there are other startups with different approaches. There are also Sampingan application and Big Agent. They try to empower day-to-day workers with a variety of outsourcing job opportunities or limited contract work. For example, a work to market something or do a survey to a place. The workers are paid based on the results of performance or called pay per performance.
Source: dailysocial.id
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