Journal of Soft Computing Exploration
Vol. 7 No. 3 (2026): September 2026

Particle swarm optimization-based support vector regression for unemployment rate prediction using panel data

Muhtajuddin Danny (Department of Informatics Engineering, Universitas Pelita Bangsa, Indonesia)
Asep Muhidin (Department of Informatics Engineering, Universitas Pelita Bangsa, Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
10 Aug 2026

Abstract

Predicting the Open Unemployment Rate (OUR) is important for supporting data-driven employment policies, particularly in regions with complex economic and social conditions. This study aims to develop a predictive model for OUR using panel data from districts/cities in West Java Province during the 2018–2025 period by applying Support Vector Regression (SVR) optimized with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The dataset includes economic, social, and demographic variables, namely labor force participation rate, average years of schooling, population, minimum wage, Human Development Index, GRDP per capita, poverty rate, and population density. The proposed approach combines SVR as a nonlinear regression technique with PSO for hyperparameter optimization to improve prediction accuracy. The experimental results show that the model achieved a Mean Squared Error (MSE) of 1.4888 and a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.4343, indicating moderate predictive performance. In addition, the optimization process demonstrated a stable reduction in RMSE values during iterations, confirming the effectiveness of PSO in enhancing the SVR model. The findings suggest that the SVR–PSO model is capable of capturing general unemployment patterns in panel data and can support adaptive, data-driven employment policy analysis.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

journal

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT Control & Systems Engineering Decision Sciences, Operations Research & Management Electrical & Electronics Engineering

Description

The journal focuses on publishing high-quality, original research and review articles in the field of Soft Computing, Informatics and Computer Science, emphasizing the development, application, and rigorous evaluation of Advanced Computational Methods, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning ...