The National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) on Monday, February 19, acknowledged the progress in the country's employment rate but stressed the need for continued efforts to recover from pandemic losses.
When asked how is the country’s employment rate going, Danilo Laserna, NAPC-Formal Labor and Migrant Workers Sector Alternate Sectoral Representative said in an interview: “We have not yet reached (pre-pandemic employment) there are still many workers who were laid off during the pandemic.”
He explained that because during the pandemic the skeletal workforce lost almost 75 percent.
Although, Laserna pointed out that "Formal labor is slowly returning, with businesses, particularly in the service industry, reopening —-this only shows that there is an “increase” in Philippines economic activities.
He further highlighted the continued deployment of Filipino migrant workers abroad indicates relaxed restrictions and returning to normal.
“In fact, our migrant workers continue to be deployed in different parts of the world. Restrictions especially on health establishment declarations have disappeared, so their deployment is okay,” he said.
Moreover, addressing the reports on the Philippines' lowest unemployment rate in over two decades, Laserna expressed cautious optimism.
"We (NAPC) think that the increase in employment and underemployment is the result of seasonal, especially the data shown by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data, a large part of which is from the contribution of seasonal rates," he said.
The Philippines' unemployment rate dropped to 3.1 percent in December 2023, according to a PSA Labor Force Survey ---this shows a decline of 617,000 unemployed individuals compared to December 2022
This also means that the employment rate surged during the period, which was posted at 96.9 percent or 50.52 million employed individuals from 95.7 percent in December 2022.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2024/02/07/article-1835numberofunemployedfilipinosatitslowestinnearlytwodecades
"Christmas season, for example, sees a surge in demand for workers in tourism and hospitality,” he added.
Meanwhile, the NAPC added that while the Philippines shows positive signs of employment recovery, they still urged continued efforts to address underemployment, especially supporting those still struggling, and striving for pre-pandemic employment levels.
"Our capacity to engage in services and receive incoming goods has reached 100 percent, but we still need more workers compared to pre-pandemic levels," he said.
“Besides, we will also look at the pattern of not increasing radically, nor decreasing radically, the rate is almost stable,” Laserna said.
Thus, he added that “we still need to focus on re-integrating those who lost their jobs during the pandemic."