Malacañang belittles SWS job survey

The government on Wed­nesday said that the figures presented by the latest Social Wea­ther Stations (SWS) survey, which claimed 14 million Filipinos were without jobs, may not have met international standards considering the very small number of respondents it interviewed.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters in a press briefing in Malacañang that the numbers used by the Department of Labor and Employment were “seemingly more accurate” because of the bigger number of survey respondents.

He said that the SWS’ 1,200-respondent figure was very small compared to the 50,000 surveyed by the National Statistics Office, which, according to him, reflected the true state of the Philippine employment status.

The Labor department “twice a year uses figures from the National Statistics Office on labor force which showed only 7.8 percent of unemployment in the country [compared to the 32.4 percent posted by SWS on Tuesdayy],” Ermita noted.

The newly appointed deputy spokesman on economic matters, Gary Olivar, echoed Ermita’s economic optimism, saying that the Philippines actually trimmed down the number of unemployed by sending 3,000 jobs abroad daily.

“Our economy remains resilient. Inflation receded and exports recovered last March. In January, less than eight percent were jobless,” Olivar said.

He added that government figures showed that only three million Filipinos were unemployed. But he admitted that even if the government had said that “the worst is over,” it does not eliminate all negative economic scenarios.

Olivar and Deputy Director General Rolando Tumpalan of the National Economic and Development Authority were officially declared also Wednesday as the new presidential spokesmen who are “supposed to assist Secretary Ermita and the President in disseminating information on the economy.” — Angelo S. Samonte And Danielle Clara P. Dandan, Manila Times