Jakarta:  The  International Labour Organisation estimates 15-thousand workers a day are losing their jobs as Inodonesia 's economy continues to collapse.
 

An Indonesian woman feeds her child as others chant slogans during a demonstration in Jakartaover the food crisis

The direct result of the monetary crisis, more than 5 million workers unemployed. About 40-percent of Indonesia's 200 million people are now classified as below the absolute poverty line. The UN predicts that figure will rise to 140-million people by the middle of next year -- a level of poverty not seen in Indonesia since the 1960s. Most of the country's poor live in rural areas. The World Bank in June predicted Indonesia's unemployment would quadruple to 20 million this year, not counting more than 50 million underemployed.

The number in poverty compares with just 22.5 million two years ago and takes Indonesia back to a level of poverty last experienced in 1976 when 40 per cent of the population were classed as poor.