Unemployment rate down in April

A flurry of public and private construction activities helped cut the jobless rate in the country to a decade-low of 5.5 percent in April, the government reported.

However, access to remunerative work or jobs that provide decent salaries still warrants attention, National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Undersecretary Rosamarie G. Edillon told a briefing.

The Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) latest Labor Force Survey showed that the underemployment rate inched up to 17 percent in April from 16.1 percent in 2016.

The underemployment rate translated to 6.9 million Filipinos in the labor force, up from last year’s 6.5 million, Neda said in a statement.

The labor force, composed of those 15 years old and above, stood at about 43.2 million as of April.

The PSA defined the underemployed as “employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours.”

Edillon said that skills mismatch was preventing workers from getting better jobs even as there are more opportunities and demand for employment.

“For workers to improve their employability so they get more remunerative jobs or a job that gives decent wages, the way to do that is by human capital investments. In the case of our government, we have been investing in higher education through the free tuition program in state universities and colleges. We have also increased assistance to TVET [technical and vocational education and training],” Edillon said.

The quality of jobs in the country has increased, according to Edillon, as full-time work now averages 42 hours a week from 40.3 hours a year ago.

As such, the unemployment rate slightly improved from 5.7 percent in April last year.

In April, 40.9 million Filipinos belonging to the labor force population were employed, up from last year’s 40.2 million.

According to Edillon, a net of 625,000 jobs were created between April last year and April this year. This, Neda said, was a reversal of the net job loss a year ago.

In particular, Edillon said the “Build, Build, Build,” the government’s massive infrastructure program, created 468,000 jobs in the construction sector.

“Employment grew partly due to increased infrastructure spending as the Department of Public Works and Highways’ road projects and rehabilitation of public school facilities are already underway nationwide,” according to Neda Undersecretary and officer-in-charge Jose Miguel R. dela Rosa.