LABOR, which is recognized as the primary social economic force by the Philippine Constitution, is now on the retreat and slowly shrinking into an army of the unemployed.

This was stressed by Wennie Sancho, secretary general of General Alliance of Workers Association (Gawa) and labor representative to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Western Visayas.

Sancho made the statement in reaction to the recent report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) that the country’s unemployment rate rose to 17.7 percent accounting to 7.3 million unemployed Filipinos in the labor force in April this year.

The PSA said this is a record high in the unemployment rate reflecting the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) economic shutdown to the Philippine labor market.

Unemployment rate in January 2020 was 5.3 percent while in April 2019, it was recorded at 5.1 percent, it added.

“This large-scale unemployment would wreak havoc into our economy and a life of misery to the unemployed workers and their families,” he added.

Gawa said unemployed jeepney drivers in Manila are begging on the streets to have something to eat. It compared laid-off workers to mendicants begging for alms.

These are the painful backlash of unemployment, the labor group also lamented.

Its official said for the workers who had returned to work it would mean service cuts and possibly wage cuts.

The International Labor Organization, Sancho said, had announced that nearly half of the global labor force are at risk of losing their jobs because of pandemic.

“How to absorb the financial and economic impact of this massive unemployment is now the dilemma confronting the people,” he said.

He also added that any jobless people are beginning to feel the discontentment and frustrations of unemployment, but most of them are reluctant to speak up about their miserable conditions.

Maybe it is not within their nature to complain, the labor leader claimed.