It is often assumed that wage-workers in developing countries can return to their villages if they lose their city jobs and, indeed, this was often the case in the past when the wage sector of the workforce was very small. But the transformation of the Indonesian economy in the last two decades has meant that rural areas can no longer function as a 'shock-absorber' for unemployment. This is particularly true of the most populous island of Java where the majority of the workforce is now employed in secondary industry and services, with a minority still employed in agriculture. With the introduction of new farming techniques and technology, agricultural productivity has greatly increased, but modernised agriculture frequently employs fewer people than traditional methods.