FOR a local labor leader, the government has been trying to downplay the Social Weather Station (SWS) survey that the unemployment rate escalated from 7.9 million in December 2019 to 27.3 million in July 2020.
Wennie Sancho, secretary-general of the General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa), said the country’s joblessness rate is at an "all-time high" of about 45.5 percent.
Sancho, also the labor representative to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Western Visayas, said the damage control strategy of the government is to water down the issue.
“It won't work because massive unemployment poses a threat to our economy,” he said, adding that “it is a clear and present danger.”
The labor leader pointed out that “unless the government could make some safety net as a form of economic intervention, we are in deep trouble.”
Believing that the social amelioration program is merely a palliative measure, Gawa said jobs for the jobless and food for the hungry should be the main program of the government.
The group, however, said it is being paralyzed by the rampage of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
It said that when unemployment is high, the workers' purchasing power is greatly reduced and they have no more access to needed goods and services.
“'No work, no pay' will be the order of the day. Unemployment brings untold sufferings to the families of the unemployed,” it added.
Sancho said since the purchasing power of the jobless worker is nil, there is no consumer spending going on and there is a downturn in our economy.
“Massive unemployment will bleed our people dry,” Sancho said, adding that “there will be no food on their table. They can't pay their water and electric bills or their house rental.”
Amid this rising unemployment, the labor group is apprehensive that the poor will become poorer and the end result will be economic displacement.
Its official further said businesses could not scale up their productivity and they will be forced to close shop and dismiss their workers.
Sancho lamented that under these deplorable economic conditions, workers have no choice but to accept starvation wages or a mere pittance just to survive.
“Massive unemployment had thrown the workers spiraling into despair,” he said, stressing that “they are struggling to find a secure future but are driven further into the spiral of economic uncertainty.”*