Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Lowongan itu menyebut gaji dan jam kerja secara formal dan jelas. - That vacancy states the salary and working hours formally and clearly.

Lowongan literally means vacancy / opening. In everyday usage, lowongan by itself very often implies job vacancy, because that’s the most common kind of vacancy people talk about.

lowongan kerja = job vacancy (more explicit)
lowongan (alone) = vacancy; in context → job vacancy

In a sentence like Lowongan itu…, people will naturally understand it as “that job opening / that job ad”. Adding kerja would also be correct and clear:
Lowongan kerja itu menyebut gaji dan jam kerja…

What is the role of itu in Lowongan itu? Does it mean “that” or “the”?

Itu is a demonstrative that can mean both:

“that” (pointing) – that vacancy (over there / already mentioned)
or function like “the” – making the noun definite, the vacancy we’ve been talking about

So:

Lowongan itu ≈ that vacancy / that job ad or the vacancy / the job ad

Without itu, Lowongan menyebut… would sound more like “a vacancy mentions…”, i.e., less specific. Itu signals that the speaker and listener both know which vacancy is meant.

Why is the subject Lowongan itu? Can an inanimate thing “mention” something in Indonesian?

Yes. Indonesian, like English, commonly lets inanimate things be the subject of active verbs:

Buku ini menjelaskan tata bahasa. – This book explains grammar.
Poster itu melarang merokok. – That poster forbids smoking.

So Lowongan itu menyebut… is like English “The job ad mentions…”. The vacancy/ad is treated as if it is doing the “mentioning”. This is completely natural in Indonesian.

What is the difference between menyebut and menyebutkan here?

Both are possible:

menyebut – to mention, to name
menyebutkan – to mention, to state, to specify (often a bit more explicit)

In practice:

Lowongan itu menyebut gaji dan jam kerja…
Lowongan itu menyebutkan gaji dan jam kerja…

Both sound fine and very close in meaning. Menyebutkan can feel slightly more formal or more “complete”/“specific”, but many speakers use them interchangeably in sentences like this.

You cannot always freely drop -kan in all verbs, but with menyebut / menyebutkan there is a lot of overlap.

Why is there no tentang before gaji dan jam kerja? Could I say menyebut tentang gaji dan jam kerja?

Here, gaji dan jam kerja is the direct object of the verb menyebut:

menyebut [gaji dan jam kerja] – to mention [the salary and working hours]

You can say menyebut tentang gaji dan jam kerja, but there’s a nuance:

menyebut gaji dan jam kerja – mentions the salary and working hours (more direct)
menyebut tentang gaji dan jam kerja – mentions about salary and working hours (a bit more roundabout and often unnecessary)

For a clear, direct statement like this, menyebut gaji dan jam kerja is more natural.

What does jam kerja mean literally, and why not just waktu kerja?

Literally:

jam = hour, clock time
kerja = work

So jam kerja is an established phrase meaning working hours / work schedule (e.g., 9am–5pm).

You could say waktu kerja, and people would understand, but:

jam kerja is the more common fixed expression for a work schedule.
waktu kerja sounds more general, like “work time / time for working,” and is less idiomatic for “hours listed in a job ad”.

What does secara do in secara formal dan jelas?

Secara turns an adjective into an adverbial phrase, roughly “in a … way”:

formal → secara formal = in a formal way, formally
jelas → secara jelas = in a clear way, clearly

So secara formal dan jelas means “in a formal and clear way” or “formally and clearly”. It describes how the job ad mentions the salary and working hours.

Could I leave out secara and say Lowongan itu menyebut gaji dan jam kerja formal dan jelas?

That sounds odd and unnatural.

Without secara, formal and jelas would most naturally be read as adjectives directly describing gaji dan jam kerja (as if the salary itself is “formal and clear”), which isn’t the intended meaning.

To say “mentions them in a formal and clear way”, you normally need:

secara formal dan jelas, or
dengan jelas dan formal, etc.

So secara (or dengan) is needed to mark those words as manner adverbs, not adjectives attached to the nouns.

Is there a difference between secara formal dan jelas and dengan formal dan jelas?

Yes:

secara + adjective is the standard way to form adverbs of manner from adjectives:
- secara formal, secara jelas, secara resmi, etc.
dengan + adjective is much more restricted; with most adjectives it sounds off.

So:

secara formal dan jelas = natural, standard
dengan formal dan jelas = sounds strange to most native speakers

But dengan works well with certain 2-word expressions:

dengan jelas (very common)
dengan sopan (politely)
dengan resmi (officially)

So you could say:

Lowongan itu menyebut gaji dan jam kerja dengan jelas dan formal.

This is acceptable, but secara formal dan jelas feels smoother and more systematic.

Can secara formal dan jelas go at the beginning of the sentence?

Yes. Indonesian word order is quite flexible with adverbial phrases. You can say:

Secara formal dan jelas, lowongan itu menyebut gaji dan jam kerja.

This has the same basic meaning but puts a bit more emphasis on the manner (“formally and clearly”). The original order—keeping secara formal dan jelas at the end—is also very natural and probably more common in neutral speech.

Could I use mencantumkan or menjelaskan instead of menyebut? How would that change the nuance?

Yes, but each has a slightly different nuance:

menyebut – to mention, to name
- Neutral: it simply says what the salary and hours are.
mencantumkan – to list, to include (in writing)
- Focuses on including it in the text / document.
- Lowongan itu mencantumkan gaji dan jam kerja…
  → “The job ad lists/includes the salary and working hours…”
menjelaskan – to explain
- Suggests more detail or explanation.
- Lowongan itu menjelaskan gaji dan jam kerja…
  → “The job ad explains the salary and working hours…”

The original menyebut is the most neutral if you just mean “it states / mentions them clearly”.