Editorial: No debate: Jobs matter

WHOM should we believe?

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) says the Philippine economic crisis is almost over, citing substantial growth in employment.

But the political opposition and militant groups dispute the government’s rosy prediction, and even warn of more hard times ahead.

According to the DOLE’s Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, citing data from the National Statistics Office (NSO), the economy generated 1.7 million new jobs from January last year. This figure is said to be one of the highest rates of employment growth the country has posted in recent years.

What further fueled the government’s optimism was that employment growth in January this year was three times higher compared with the 569,000 new jobs generated in the same period in 2009. “Aside from higher employment growth, the rate of full-time employment and the number of wage-salary workers went up while the number of part-time workers went down, as well as the number of self-employed, meaning we are in good direction,”
according to labor officials.

But former labor undersecretary Susan Ople says the results of the latest NSO labor-force survey are “deceptive.”

“We shouldn’t just look at the numbers but also at the quality of jobs being generated. Most of these jobs are seasonal and contractual, and some are even campaign- or election-driven,” Ople pointed out. We should even expect further increases in unemployment and underemployment rates, particularly in the provinces affected by the ongoing power crisis, she adds.

The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa likewise warns of higher unemployment as close to a million college graduates join the labor force next month. Of this total, the group says, over 90,000 are unlikely to find jobs.

That grim projection is shared by the local research group IBON Foundation. Jobs in the country will continue to be scarce and could render around 30 percent of college graduates jobless this year, it said.

IBON contends that the actual number of Filipinos without jobs has already reached 4.5 million. This contradicts the latest data from the NSO showing that the number of unemployed persons in the country stands at only 2.8 million.

When the numbers don’t match, it’s easy to conclude that either side has a different set of figures because of conflicting political, ideological or other viewpoints. But what is indisputable is that job creation should be the priority of both the outgoing and the incoming administrations.

As a developing country, the Philippines has roughly more than a third of its people living on the edge of poverty. As the International Labor Organization emphasizes, the main route out of poverty is work, which it considers central to people’s well-being. In addition to providing income, work can pave the way for broader social and economic advancement, strengthening individuals, their families and communities. But work should be decent. Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. The government is duty-bound to advance opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

Given this framework, we will have to contend with conflicting claims of how many are actually gainfully employed. Until we are able to lick poverty with adequate and decent jobs for most Filipinos, we can’t really say that we have surmounted our own economic crisis. –Businessmirror