The good news is that both unemployment and underemployment rates are going down.
That’s the latest from the labor force survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority, with the agency reporting that the unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 percent in May from six percent in the same period last year.
On the other hand, the underemployment rate improved to 11.7 percent from 14.5 percent in May last year, which is equivalent to one million fewer underemployed persons.
The government defines the unemployed to include all persons who are 15 years old and over, and are reported as without work and currently available for work and seeking work.
It also covers those who are not seeking work due to being tired or the belief that no work is available, a temporary illness, bad weather and a decision to wait for a possible job rehire or recall.
Underemployed persons, meanwhile, are employed persons who have expressed the desire to have an additional hour of work in their present job or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work.
The latest figures indicate unemployment and underemployment hitting their second lowest rates since 2005, which should give our economic managers ample reason to believe they are putting in place the right policies and programs to further open up the economy.
But wait.
This is no time for complacency, according to the President himself.
He wants the government to fix the “complicated” systems in the bureaucracy to enhance job generation and provide the labor force with quality jobs that would allow them to live decent and productive lives.
“We need to have economic activity so our countrymen will have jobs. It will not happen just because we stated it. We really need to do a lot of things,” he said.
These include introducing new policies that would speed up digitalization and allow the labor force to acquire new skills to make the Philippines a more investor-friendly place, not just for foreigners but also for local entrepreneurs.
Creating an environment conducive for both foreign and local investors also means fixing the way government departments are run, and facilitating the ease of doing business in the country.
That is the marching order given by the President to Economic Planning Secretary and concurrent NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan, on whose shoulders rest the awesome responsibility to implement “game-changing” reforms that will improve the country’s business investment climate and help sustain labor market gains, including high-quality job creation in partnership with the private sector.
