Number of jobless Filipinos increased instead of declined

The militant labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) clarified that the number of Filipinos without jobs actually rose instead of declined if the latest labor force survey data is examined further.

“If we dig deeper into the jobs numbers, we find that there are more Filipinos without gainful employment in September compared to the previous month in contrast to the declaration of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA),” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and Marikina city councilor.

He added that “The officially unemployed in September is only 1.96 million, lower than the 2.03 million unemployed in August. But 572,000 Filipinos—classified as either employed or unemployed in August—left the labor force by September. If we add these to the 1.96 million officially unemployed then we arrive at 2.53 million Filipinos without jobs in September.”

Magtubo stated that there is a very strict definition of who is officially unemployed. “If you worked even for just one hour in the previous week then you are already employed. Conversely, even if you are without a job but are not actively looking for work—including if you have gotten tired and/or believe that there is no work available anyway—then you are categorized as not unemployed but instead are outside of the labor force. Either way, the unemployment rate becomes very low due to this very narrow definition,” he said.

“In truth, so many kababayans are without gainful work. Since the private sector cannot offer these kababayans with gainful employment, the government should step in through a jobs guarantee program. Preferably these alternative jobs should be green, decent and long-term instead of the current TUPAD model of emergency work that is mostly sweeping streets,” Magtubo elaborated.