President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday declared that the country is on track to achieve its pandemic economic recovery targets as jobless figures reached record low.
“This is a good sign. The economy is trying very hard to grow,” the President said in a news statement.
On Tuesday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported the unemployment rate slowed to 5 percent last September, the lowest rate since the 4.5 percent in 2019, from 5.3 percent in the preceding month.
Likewise, it reported that employment for the same month also slightly improved to 95 percent from 94.7 percent in August.
Job creation
The President attributed both improvements in the labor market to the employment generation efforts of the government.
“Ever since we started with the economic team, even before I took office, we really concentrated on the creation of jobs,” Marcos said.
The top employment-generating sectors were Manufacturing, Education, Public Administration and Defense, Transportation and Real estate, according to PSA.
The President is confident the trend will persist since job generation is among the top priorities of his administration.
“We just have to be able to tolerate the shocks that are coming from abroad. But otherwise, the economy is moving in the right direction,” the President said.
To note, PSA attributed the drop in unemployment to the decline in labor force participation as many workers decided to return to school.
Better quality
When it comes to underemployment rate, which accelerated to 15.4 percent last September, the President said the government will address this by improving the quality of jobs.
In a text message, Labor and Employment Secretary Bienvenido E. Laguesma said among their initiatives to provide better employment opportunities to workers will be through the skills training or upskilling programs of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
“Effective job facilitation and accurate and reliable labor market information are part of DOLE initiatives that can likewise be of help,” Laguesma said.
Labor groups have called on the government to address rising underemployment by taming high inflation rate and increasing more “quality” employment opportunities.