Aquino Legacy: Jobs crisis unprecedented in PH history

July 21, 2015

by superadmin

This only shows the poor quality of the jobs created, while regular jobs are lost

The number of unemployed Filipinos continued to swell since the start of Pres. Aquino’s term, making the worsening job crisis a distinct feature of the administration, according to research group IBON.

The group said that the number of unemployed Filipinos has likely risen by at least 100,000, the number of underemployed Filipinos by at least a million, and the number of merely part-time workers by at least 1.5 million. IBON estimates 12.2 million unemployed and underemployed Filipinos as of 2014, consisting of 4.3 million unemployed and 7.9 million underemployed.

According to IBON, official unemployment figures do not include discouraged job-seekers and has also excluded the calamity-stricken Eastern Visayas region. Secondly, a huge part of employment is comprised of part-time and low-income jobs in the informal sector. For instance, 90% or some 918,000 of the 1.2 million additional work in 2014 comprised of part-time jobs worked less than 40 hours a week.

When broken down, the reported increase in official employment figures in April 2015 consists of some 544,000 additional informal work and 137,000 full-time jobs lost. This only shows the poor quality of the jobs created, while regular jobs are lost as the country’s production sectors lose their capacity to create meaningful jobs.

The best sources of decent jobs that could contribute to national development are those created from locally strong agriculture and manufacturing industries, according to IBON. But the worsening of the jobs situation is expected with the administration’s gross neglect of the country’s production sectors in favor of elite and foreign interests, the research group said.

IBON presented its midyear 2015 economic and political assessment today at the University of the Philippines. (end)