‘Yolanda’ seen to cause spike in unemployment rate

The country’s unemployment rate is expected to rise in January as a consequence of the latest calamity, the National Economic and Development Authority said.

According to the Neda, the jobless rate would likely exceed the 6.5 percent recorded in October due to the extent of damage on property and infrastructure in the Visayas.

“The latest calamity may have an effect on the employment numbers to be derived from the next Labor Force Survey in January,” Neda Director General Arsenio Balisacan said in a briefing last week.

But the agency last week released a recovery master plan to minimize the expected spike in the unemployment rate and reverse this trend by the latter part of 2014.

Balisacan told reporters that the recovery plan, called the Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY), included immediate employment programs for affected people.

Those who lost their jobs would be offered employment in the reconstruction projects under RAY, the country’s chief economist said.

Also, farmers and fishermen will be given the necessary equipment, including seedlings, to help them get back on their feet, he added.

According to the Neda’s calamity assessment report, the supertyphoon’s toll on property and infrastructure reached P571 billion.

The agency said the government would need P360.8 billion to fully implement the recovery initiatives under RAY.

The recovery plan also involves reconstruction of public infrastructure, provision of shelter to affected families, as well as the restoration of government offices, public schools and hospitals.

The National Statistics Office (NSO), an attached agency of the Neda, reported that of the estimated 40.33 million-strong labor force in October, about 2.62 million were unemployed.

This translated to an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent, which was better than the 6.8 percent registered in the same month last year.

But economic officials acknowledged that the drop in the unemployment rate had been slow. They said more effort must be exerted to boost job creation needed to sustain the robust growth of the economy.

Balisacan said that under the updated Philippine Development Plan (PDP) to be released in January, three sectors would be given priority. Manufacturing, agriculture and tourism will be given ample investment support because of their capability to provide jobs to people from low-income families.