Malacañang expressed confidence that there will be fewer Filipinos with no jobs in the future as the government develops concrete plans to sustain economic recovery amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Communication Secretary Martin Andanar made the statement after the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed a decline in adult joblessness. The SWS reported that the average joblessness for 2021 is 25.7 percent, which is 11.7 percent below the record-high 37.4-percent average joblessness for 2020.
In his statement, Andanar said that the numbers would improve.
"We are confident to see a further improvement as the government has concrete plans to sustain our economic rebound," he said Friday, April 29.
The acting Palace spokesman credited the decline to the government's decision to change how it responds to the coronavirus pandemic.
"This is a clear indication of how effective our calibrated strategy of shifting to the Alert Levels System is to further reopen the economy – where more businesses are operating, and more Filipinos are able to go to work – while ramping our Covid-19 vaccination drive," he said.
The SWS survey result came almost a month 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.
Early this month, Andanar said, while the decline was a welcome development, there was more to be done.
"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.