Despite having fewer jobless Filipinos in February this year compared to the same period in 2021, Malacañang said that more needs to be done to allow everyone to return to work amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar made this statement after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the number of jobless Filipinos sunk by over a million in February 2022 compared to the same month last year.
PSA's preliminary February 2022 Labor Force Survey showed an estimated 3.13 million unemployed individuals aged 15 and above in February, lower by 1.06 million compared with P4.19 million in the same month in 2021.
It likewise reported an unemployment rate of 6.4 percent.
In his statement on Thursday, April 7, Andanar said that the improvement in the employment situation in the country "demonstrates the effective recalibration of our strategies with the shift to Alert Levels System, which allowed more Filipinos to rejoin the labor force."
"This is, indeed, concrete proof that our Covid-19 response is working," he said.
However, the acting Palace spokesman said that more needs to be done despite the welcome development.
"While we have done much in reopening our economy, much more needs to be done as there are more than three million Filipinos with no jobs," Andanar said.
"Our Economic Team, for one, hopes to shift the entire country to Alert Level 1 and reap its full benefits so that more businesses would operate and more Filipinos would be able to find work," he added.
The government's pandemic task force has placed over 100 areas in the country, including Metro Manila, under Alert Level 1 until April 15, following the low reports of Covid-19 cases over the past weeks.
The national government has adopted a Ten-Point Policy Agenda to accelerate and sustain economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. It had also further eased the requirements for arriving international passengers.
On April 7, Malacañang welcomed the result of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that 51 percent, or +44, of adult Filipinos, think that the Philippine economy will improve in the next 12 months.