Youth group concerned at lack of jobs for new graduates

(Photo from Rappler)

The youth group Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan (PMK) expressed concern at the lack of jobs awaiting the hundreds of thousands of new graduates this year. Tomorrow, PMK is holding a protest at the offices of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) to highlight its call for decent jobs for young workers.

“Are there enough jobs for 600,000 college graduates and thousands more of K-12 graduates immediately entering the labor force? Further, are there decent jobs awaiting them or just more of the usual endo work?,” asked Rea Foliente of PMK.

PMK is the youth wing of the militant Partido Manggagawa. PM is among the labor groups active in the campaign to end contractualization and has criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for his refusal to sign an EO to make direct hiring the norm in employment relations.

PMK is raising a red flag as the World Bank recently released a report about the lack of quality jobs in the country and the worsening inequality as a result. The group is likewise questioning ECOP for the Jobstreet data that only 24% of employers are willing to hire K-12 graduates.

Foliente insisted that “In 2016, 78% of the jobless were 15 to 34 years old. Half of them were aged 24 years old or below. A diploma is no antidote to unemployment as 34% of the unemployed had actually gone to college and 20% were college graduates!”

She added that “The youth challenge the DTI and ECOP to show us the numbers. How many graduates can be absorbed in the labor force? And will the work be regular or dead-end contractual jobs in agencies?”

“Another employers organization, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry earlier questioned that the minimum number of hours required of senior high school students are not enough to train and qualify them for entry-level work,” Foliente explained.

Some 100 PMK and women members of PM together with contingents from the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) and Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Labor Union will join the protest tomorrow against the DTI and ECOP for their pro-endo lobby and scare tactics against regular jobs. The rally comes after the announcement of Malacanang that President Duterte is not signing an EO to make direct hiring the norm in employment.

Foliente cited the International Labour Organization (ILO) report titled “Global Employment Trends for Youth 2017: Paths to a better working future,” that stated that youth unemployment rate for Southeast Asia and the Pacific is seen to rise from 11.7 percent in 2016 to 12 percent in 2017, and to 12.2 percent in 2018. 

April 22, 2018

Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan

Presidentiables asked for jobs policy as unemployment to rise with new graduates

Press Release
March 23, 2010

The labor party-list Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) challenged the presidentiables to reveal their jobs policy as unemployment is expected to rise by April with the influx of new graduates to the labor force.

“We ask the presidentiables to present a jobs policy that will address the grave problem of unemployment in general and youth joblessness in particular Of the estimated half a million graduates this March, more than 90,000 will not be able to find work despite investing four or five years and a fortune in a college education,” declared Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson.

Magtubo issued his challenge during the PM national congress that is being held at the Oblates Missionary Center in Quezon City. The two-day congress ends today with the election of five nominees from among 120 delegates from different chapters nationwide.

Magtubo based his assertion on the National Statistics Office’s (NSO) April 2005 unemployment data of 18.5% for graduates. “Despite possessing a shiny new college diploma, graduates are only marginally better off than undergraduates whose unemployment rate is 21%,” he added.

To generate decent jobs, PM is advocating a short-term program of massive public employment program and a long-term reorientation of economic and trade policy away from liberalization. “The present emergency employment program must be made more widespread to employ millions but should also be reformed. People’s organizations not local politicians must administer the public employment program so that it will not be used for patronage and it must promote decent work instead of worsening contractualization. But a strategic jobs policy demands the political will to reverse liberalization, deregulation and privatization, and to uphold domestic industry and agriculture,” Magtubo explained.

Magtubo furthered that “The graduates of 2010 are only 12% of the 100 school age kids approximately 14 years ago who have survived the education system. Of these 12 out of 100, seven will take a licensure exam but only three will pass. Of the three, only one will find profession that fits his or her education. The rest will find work that has nothing to do with their college course.”

Labor party-list warns joblessness awaits graduates

Press Release
March 17, 2010

The labor party-list Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) warned that joblessness awaits the new graduates who will be entering the labor force come April. “Of the estimated half a million graduates this March, more than 90,000 will not be able to find work despite investing four or five years and a fortune in a college education. We challenge the presidentiables to present a jobs policy that will address the grave problem of unemployment in general and youth joblessness in particular,” stated Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson.

Magtubo’s figures are a projection of the National Statistics Office’s (NSO) April 2005 unemployment data of 18.5% for graduates. “Despite possessing a shiny new college diploma, graduates are only marginally better off than undergraduates whose unemployment rate is 21%,” he added.

PM meanwhile criticized the latest NSO employment figures for “propagating myths instead of truths.” Magtubo argued that “Unemployment has been kept magically low by removing from the labor force those who have already been discouraged from looking for work and even those who keep on looking for work but have not found any for more than six months. Starting in 2005, by a mere redefinition of terms, one million Filipinos have been taken off from the unemployment rolls and the government can claim that unemployment has come down from the historical average of 10% to the current 7%.”

PM is advocating a short-term program of massive public employment program and a long-term reorientation of economic and trade policy away from liberalization to generate decent jobs. “The present emergency employment program must be made more widespread to employ millions but should also be reformed. People’s organizations not local politicians must administer the public employment program so that it will not be used for patronage and it must promote decent work instead of worsening contractualization. But a strategic jobs policy demands the political will to reverse liberalization, deregulation and privatization, and to uphold domestic industry and agriculture,” Magtubo said.

Magtubo furthered that “The graduates of 2010 are only 12% of the 100 school age kids approximately 14 years ago who have survived the education system. Of these 12 out of 100, seven will take a licensure exam but only three will pass. Of the three, only one will find profession that fits his or her education. The rest will find work that has nothing to do with their college course.”

PM is calling on the youth and the graduates to be critical and vote for candidates who have a concrete program to address unemployment. The party-list group is campaigning on a platform of “Apat na Dapat,” which means regular jobs, decent wages, affordable housing and universal healthcare coverage.