Abstract
This study examines the implementation of local labor absorption policy in the garment industry in Bantul Regency, Indonesia. Although labor-intensive industries are expected to generate employment opportunities for local communities, policy outcomes often depend on implementation quality, workforce readiness, institutional coordination, and employment sustainability. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study combines qualitative evidence from interviews and document analysis with econometric validation based on survey data from 420 garment workers. The qualitative findings show that local labor absorption policy has facilitated more open recruitment channels, pre-placement orientation, and institutional support for workforce preparation. However, implementation remains constrained by weak cross-sector coordination, limited worker readiness, high labor turnover, and mismatches between worker expectations and factory conditions. The Ordered Probit results indicate that orientation participation, vocational training, skill readiness, and coordination quality significantly improve perceived implementation effectiveness, while labor turnover perception reduces it. The Probit model further shows that orientation participation, training, job satisfaction, skill readiness, and age increase the probability of worker retention, whereas distance to the factory significantly reduces retention. Robustness checks using Ordered Logit confirm the stability of the main findings. The study concludes that local labor absorption policy should not be understood merely as a recruitment mechanism, but as a broader governance process involving worker preparation, institutional coordination, labor market matching, and employment retention. Policy efforts should prioritize standardized orientation programs, stronger vocational training, improved inter-agency coordination, better workplace conditions, and transport accessibility to enhance sustainable local employment outcomes.