Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Sec. Silvestre Bello III will end his term by the end of this month but he expressed confidence Friday, June 10, that he will be leaving with a far better” labor market condition.
To walk his talk, Bello cited the recent results of the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for the month of April.
According to Bello, the report showed a “significant” increase of 5.3 percent or 2.450 million in the economically active workforce compared to the January 2022 round.
The April 2022 LFS also recorded the highest employment rate since the pandemic at 94.3 percent or 45.631 million employed workers, which translated to employment gains of 2.613 million vis-à-vis the January 2022 round at 43.018 million or 93.6 percent).
Further, Bello said the unemployment rate also decreased to 5.7 percent or 2.762 million unemployed individuals in April 2022, compared to 6.4 percent or 2.925 million unemployed persons in January 2022.
Also, a decline in the underemployment rate was observed at 14 percent or 6.399 million in April 2022, compared to 14.9 percent or 6.397 million underemployed persons in January 2022.
“We are ending our term in office this month on a happy note. We are turning over a labor market that is in a far better condition than what we previously had because of the pandemic,” Bello said.
“While the worst may seem to be over, the challenges ahead are still enormous. Despite the lingering pandemic being put under control, external shocks triggering rising prices of fuel, food and other basic commodities adversely impact our economy and threaten our continued efforts to improve the labor market,” he noted.
As such, the DOLE chief said the department was monitoring the developments even as it vowed to be ready to respond to help Filipino workers through emergency employment, livelihood grants, and employment facilitation services, among others.
“As we transition to the incoming administration, we will strive to maintain stability and industrial peace in the labor market until the last day of our work. We are confident that the incoming administration will be able to sustain the gains that we had, and even surpass them,” Bello concluded.