Despite recording a decline in the number of unemployed Filipinos, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said there has to be a continuous economic activity to generate jobs that would spawn growth and development in the country.

President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (ALFRED FRIAS/JOEY RAZON/ NIB-PNA)

Marcos said this following the May 2023 Labor Force Survey, which showed that unemployment and underemployment rates in the country fell to 4.3 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively, in May 2023.

The country's unemployment was 6.0 percent in May 2022, while the underemployment rate during the same period was 14.5 percent.

In an interview with reporters on Friday evening, July 7, the President said the government's priority remained to be giving people jobs as he welcomed the recent report.

"Kaya’t lahat naman ng ating ginagawa sa ekonomiya ay para mabigyan ng – hindi lamang yung underemployed na klase na trabaho kundi yung magandang trabaho na may future, may benefits, lahat ‘yan (Everything we do for the economy is to give the underemployed not just jobs but jobs with a future, benefits, everything)," he said.

"Kaya’t nakakatuwa naman at dahan-dahan ay umaakyat ‘yung numero ng employed dito sa Pilipinas (That's why I'm happy that the number employed Filipinos is slowly rising)," he added.

However, President Marcos said that more should be done, noting that creating a robust and vibrant economy will entail bringing in foreign investments and local investments.

"Kailangan magkaroon ng economic activity para magkaroon ng trabaho ang ating mga kababayan. Kailangan marami pa tayong kailangan talagang gawin (There should be economic activity so our people could have jobs. We need to do more)," he said.

"The bureaucracy and the economy are complicated systems that need time to adjust to the initiatives that we have introduced in terms of policy, in terms of digitalization, in terms of the new skills and processes that we want to adopt for the issues that have been raised in terms of making the Philippines a more investor-friendly place," he added.

In an earlier statement, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the Marcos administration brought down the underemployment and unemployment rates in the second quarter of 2023 due to the economic strategies and policies to bring in more local and foreign investments.