by Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Indonesia Correspondent

JAKARTA, INDONESIA - When Mr Yusman graduated from Bung Karno University in Jakarta three years ago, he thought he would be well on the road to a career in marketing management by now.

Indeed, he does spend 12 hours a day on the road ? but not pursuing his dream.

He is a driver for Blue Bird, Indonesia's largest taxi company.

Yet Mr Yusman, 27, is one of the lucky ones. Indonesia's jobless rate stands at 9.1 per cent, meaning that 9.4 million are unemployed. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), young people represent 57 per cent of the nation's jobless.

He is one of about 100 of the company's 20,000 taxi drivers who hold a university degree or have studied in college, according to spokesman Teguh Wijayanto.

Mr Yusman puts the blame for his plight squarely on the government.

"The government isn't making the right policies," he says. "We shouldn't have had all those new shopping malls because that's wasteful spending. The government is allowing this to happen. We should have more factories instead."

Mr Pahala Edward Goeltom, who holds a bachelors' degree in bank management from Stekpi University in Jakarta, also blames the government.

Although he is in his early 30s, he still lives with his parents, who run a printing business and a photocopy service at home in Pancoran, South Jakarta.

"We mostly do wedding invitation card and business card printing," said Mr Pahala, who has never landed any formal job since graduating six years ago.

Economists say that the school curriculum in the country of 220 million is hopelessly outdated. As a result, graduates are not ready for the working world.

Employers cannot find graduates with the required qualifications, says economist Juniman with PT Bank Internasional Indonesia. "Companies wouldn't want to be forced to hire anyone if they don't see the qualifications they need," he says.

The inability to match qualified Indonesians to jobs is worrying, given Indonesia's accelerating economic growth. Last year, it hit 6.3 per cent, the highest since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

"Schools need to work closely with industry associations to find out what is needed," says economist Sri Moertiningsih of the Demographic Institute at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.

"Job requirements keep changing, and people in the industry know best how the requirements have changed," she said.

Critics have also said Indonesia's 2,684 universities and higher education institutions have not been tailored to local circumstances as they rely heavily on Western textbooks.

"I had a former student telling me he's with a company now and couldn't apply anything from the marketing textbook he studied," says Dr Sri.

Still, the unemployment rate in Indonesia is expected to decline. Three years ago, 10.9 million Indonesians had no jobs so there has already been a marked improvement.

Furthermore, the number of Indonesians in non-productive age groups ? below 14 and above 65 ? is low and not expected to bottom out for another nine years, says a recent report by the ILO on Indonesian labour and social trends. That will allow the country to see accumulating savings that can create new employment, it adds.

Finally, there are those like Mr Primus Junica, 36, who graduated in 2002 and are putting their smarts to work. After two years of job hunting, he started his own food-stall business, and now has a staff of six working for him.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on August 30, 2008.