Where are Bali’s jobs growing, and what does the labour data show?

Bali’s labour market is expanding, but the gains are uneven across sectors. Official figures show 2.74 million people were in the labour force and 2.70 million were working in August 2025, while the open unemployment rate was 1.49%, according to the Bali provincial government’s 2025 regional accountability report citing BPS Bali. Bank Indonesia says the largest workforce additions were in transport, accommodation and food services, trade and construction.

How many people work in Bali?

Bali’s labour force reached 2.74 million people in August 2025, up 28.62 thousand from August 2024, according to the Bali provincial government’s 2025 report citing BPS Bali. The number of people working was 2.70 million, an increase of 36.31 thousand over the same period.

The labour-force participation rate rose by 0.20 percentage points to 77.31% in August 2025, the same report says. These measures count people participating in the labour market, not only employees in formal companies.

What happened to unemployment?

Bali’s open unemployment rate was 1.49% in August 2025, down 0.30 percentage points from August 2024, according to the same BPS-based report. The rate was highest in Karangasem at 1.80% and lowest in Bangli at 0.73%.

A separate Bali provincial government statement reported a 1.45% open unemployment rate for November 2025, describing it as the lowest nationally and comparing it with a 4.85% national average. The different months mean the figures should not be treated as interchangeable.

Which sectors added the most workers?

Trade was the largest source of net employment growth between August 2024 and August 2025: wholesale and retail trade added 23.38 thousand workers, according to the Bali provincial government’s report citing BPS Bali. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries recorded the largest decline, falling by 16.25 thousand workers.

Bank Indonesia’s February 2026 Bali economic report identifies transport, accommodation and food services, trade and construction as the business fields with the biggest workforce additions in the fourth quarter of 2025. Its finding points to continued job creation in tourism-linked activities, alongside construction and commerce.

What does this mean for investors and employers?

The figures indicate a large and increasingly active labour pool, but they do not show that employment growth is spread evenly across Bali. Trade and tourism-related services are prominent sources of new work, while agriculture’s recorded contraction highlights a shift in the composition of employment.

For business planning, the official data distinguish between labour-market size, participation and unemployment. They do not by themselves measure wages, vacancies, skills shortages or the share of jobs held by foreign workers.

Sources

• Biro Pemerintahan
• Bank Indonesia