Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Overseas jobs helped bring down RP's unemployment figures: ALU
THE number of jobless Filipinos would have soared by nearly 50 percent last year if not for the overseas employment of over a million workers, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said yesterday.
If the 1,073,402 Filipino workers deployed abroad in 2007 had stayed, they would have displaced more than a million workers in the country’s labor force.
This could have increased the country’s number of unemployed persons to more than three million.
TUCP spokesperson Alex Aguilar said the country’s unemployment rate would have surged as high as 9.3 percent in 2007.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration recorded more workers leaving for work abroad last year. There were only 1,062,567 who left for overseas jobs in 2006.
But if the workers had stayed, the number of unemployed Filipinos would have ballooned to 3,335,102.
Based on the results of the latest Labor Force Survey, a total of 2,261,700 Filipinos were entirely unemployed as of October 2007. This is 6.3 percent of the country’s 35.9-million labor force.
“While many of the Filipinos who left for overseas jobs last year could have qualified for full or part-time employment here, they surely would have displaced other labor force participants who were otherwise gainfully engaged,” Aguilar said.
Survey
The last labor force survey also showed that of the 33,638,300 Filipinos that were considered “employed” as of October, some 18.1 percent or 6,088,532 were actually “underemployed,” or eagerly looking for additional work to support themselves and their families.
Aguilar stressed the need for the government “to take the lead in creating new jobs,” and proposed a national employment plan that would compel every agency and state-owned firm to carry out more labor-intensive projects.
To make sure these agencies do, Aguilar said Congress should consider as factors for approving their budget not only their performance, but also the number of jobs they were able to provide.
Targets
“Let us ensure labor-intensiveness in each public project and in every private sector endeavor. Let us compel each agency to set achievable employment targets. Then, let us assign an inter-agency panel to monitor performance in terms of jobs creation,” he said.
As to the private sector, Aguilar proposed that loan applications with government financial institutions be approved on the basis of the number of jobs the projects to be funded would create.
He said the government should focus on public works that have the highest job-creation potential and generate the highest returns. He said these projects, such as farm-to-market roads, school buildings and irrigation systems, are also urgently needed.
Whether such projects involve new construction or maintenance, they provide direct employment, help lower cost of production and consequently, also lower the prices of goods, he said.
In a country with high rates of unemployment and underemployment, capital-intensive methods of production are highly questionable, Aguilar said.
“Jobs provide people with income that enable them to buy goods and services or to save. The increase in consumption stimulates the market, revives the economy and provides revenue for government. And the accumulation of savings provides funds for investment,” Aguilar said. (PR)
