The government’s strengthened employment facilitation services and strict implementation of laws that ensure the protection and security of workers are reasons behind the improved employment situation in the country, the labor department has reported.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the positive gains in the employment situation in the country are attributed to the nationwide conduct of job fairs, which is among the major interventions of the government in getting more Filipinos employed, as well as in bringing down the country’s unemployment rate.
“The improving employment situation of the country is the manifestation of the effectiveness of our employment facilitation services in getting more Filipinos employed,” he said.
“Also more Filipino workers are now enjoying remunerative and stable employment with the strict implementation of laws that ensure the protection and security of our workers,” Bello added.
Based on the April 2019 Labor Force Survey rounds conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority, 1.3 million jobs were generated for 2019, making a total of 42.2 million employed Filipinos.
The number is 3.3 percent higher than the 40.89 million employed Filipinos recorded last year.
Unemployed persons dropped by 75,000 at 5.1 percent, a 0.4 percentage point decrease from the 5.5 percent unemployment rate in April 2018 – the lowest unemployment rate recorded since 2009.
The April 2019 LFS also noted positive progress in the quality of employment as the number of remunerative and stable wage workers increased by 2.6 percent, reaching 26.7 million secured workers.
Underemployed persons, on the other hand, were significantly reduced by 1.2 million from the figure posted during the same period last year.
Overall improvements in the underemployment rate were attributed by the strengthened employment facilitation and services of the administration, including the conduct of job fairs nationwide, the utilization of PhilJobNet, an online job portal for jobseekers, as well as the increase on the regional wages of employed workers.
However, despite the decrease in the number of unemployed workers, underemployment remains a challenge with over 1 million unemployed youth aged 15-24 years old.
“The labor department will remain relentless in uplifting the quality of life of every Filipino worker and their families by strengthening our employment facilitation services and enhancing our social protection programs for our workers,” Bello said.
“We are also consistent in pushing for the passage of the security of tenure bill to stop all forms of abusive employment practices that continue to immerse our workers in a quagmire of poverty and underemployment,” he added.