National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Arsenio Balisacan has expressed confidence that newly-appointed Education Secretary Sonny Angara will be able to deliver the necessary reforms to meet the demands of the labor market from Filipino workers.
Angara took over the helm of the Department of Education following the resignation of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Balicasan said there is a need to focus on and improved the education system to maximize the current data on employment wherein the unemployment is now only at 4.1 percent, which he said is lower compared to the past and even compared with developed countries.
And Balicasan is optimistic that Angara would be able to deliver over the latter’s exposure to various decision-making process on educational reforms in the past.
“He (Angara) knows very well as he has been very involved in decision in the education sector. He knows very well the problems and issues facing our education system, there are positive things there that I see from positive side of labor,” said Balisacan during the Build Better More Infrastructure Forum at the New Clark City in Tarlac.
The improvement in the Philippine education system, according to Balisacan, is essential especially now that the Marcos administration has been very aggressive in encouraging foreign investors to pick the country as investment destination.
He said that these investments will eventually lead to high demand for jobs, and that is the reason why there should be a continuous upskilling and retooling to be prepared on what the labor market would need when foreign investors start bringing in their money to the Philippines.
“Investments will increase the demand for high quality labor and on the supply side, we have to worry about what’s the quality of our labor, what’s the quality of labor that coming out of our universities,” said Balisacan.
Labor’s demographic structure
During the forum, Balisacan said the Philippine government should take advantage of the current data on labor force which showed that there are more Filipinos now who are in the work force.
“If you look at demographic structure, our working age group is growing fast, meaning the number of the workers compared to the dependents. This means that there are more people joining the labor market,” said Balisacan.
This is the part, he said, that upskilling, retooling and other educational reforms are needed.
“What that means is that if you are able have the skills and competencies by those rapidly growing sector of economy improved, the economy can grow even faster than if you working and investing on physical capital,” said Balisacan.
He said there were data from other countries which showed how they benefitted from the changes in the demographic structure of the labor force.
Those benefits, Balisacan said, include two to three percent growth in the economy.
“We are just entering that now, we cannot waste that opportunity. If you lose that window because you don’t investment properly then, it would be a waste because it can benefit us for two to three decades,” said Balisacan.
It’s the quality of jobs
For Balisacan, it is not only about opening more jobs that define the productivity of the country but more on the quality of jobs that would be available to the Filipino work force.
“It’s not about just the opening of jobs or more jobs, it’s the quality of the jobs, jobs that will open up more stable employment, more secured, more high earning, more productive,” said Balisacan.
The quality of jobs that that the Philippine government could offer to its labor force would lead to move the wages the fast—and this why luring more investors is essential in the Marcos administration’s goal of speeding up economic growth and improving the quality of life of the people.
“We need massive investment and that’s why the focus of the Marcos administration is getting the investment community to see the Philippines as an important investment destination. And only then we can see those investment coming in that we expect productivity to rise and for wages to rise,” said Balisacan.
“Because you cannot increase productivity and expect wages to rise. The investors will just leave the country and put their investment somewhere else where they have high productivity. So investment is so critical to improving the productivity,” he added.