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Thursday, March 17, 2005
Editorial: Rising number of unemployed
One indicator of the health of a nation’s economy is the unemployment rate.
Economic stability, according to economists, is in inverse proportion to the number of jobless among the employable population. The lesser the number of unemployed, the stronger the nation’s economy ought to be.
While the economic outlook in January appeared bright because of revived investor interest in the Philippines, the unemployment rate in the same month, as reported by the National Statistics Office (NSO), was less than encouraging. The current unemployment rate went up to 11.3 percent from the 10.9 percent in October.
In real human figures, the number of unemployed in the country as of January stood at 4.03 million Filipinos, an increase of more than a hundred thousand jobless at the beginning of 2005 compared to the same month in 2004, with 3.9 million.
The figures strike deep into the heart of a gloomy national condition that has become even glummer.
As it is, the three major sectors of the economy from which employment opportunities generally emanates—the industrial, services, and agricultural sectors—failed to deliver the expected number of job openings this year, as it did in the same period last year.
Of the three, only agriculture reported job creation during the month. NSO data showed that the “farm sector…generated 185,000 new jobs. This resulted in a net job creation of only 87,000 for all three sectors which compared poorly with the 1.4 million jobs generated in January 2004.”
The inflationary trend in the economy in the latter part of last year is the villain that slowed down consumer spending. Employment decreased in businesses related “to trade, hotels and restaurants, communication and storage, transportation, renting and real estate—which composed 65 percent of the services sector.”
The rate of inflation last January “hit 8.4 percent…way above the 5-6 percent” government economists targeted for the rest of 2005.
In the face of certain challenging realities that could affect the national condition, there is need for caution in appreciating the prevailing state of the economy. It is possible our government’s economic planners could miscalculate the potential effect of their proffered solution to our livelihood problems on the unwary public.
There is, for instance, the additional two percent value added tax. If Congress passes the proposed new tax measures, would it not further worsen our state of unemployment as the affected businesses readjust their operations to protect their investments and ensure their survival?
The answer to the question the ranks of our jobless work force would like to know.
(March 17, 2005 issue)
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