‘Covid-19 to swell jobless numbers to 4.5 million in 2020’

by Jovee Marie de la Cruz, BusinessWorld, 3 Jun 2020

Around 30 jeepney drivers from Caloocan City out of work since the lockdowns in March hold a rally to ask City Hall to let them ply their routes. They say they have yet to receive cash aid from the government, and that they should also be allowed to return as bus and taxi drivers were already earning a living. Transport advocates have asked the government to implement service contracting to protect transport workers and ensure adequate public transportation in areas under the general community quarantine.

THE coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic will swell the number of Filipinos losing their jobs this year to 4.5 million, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

In a hearing of the House Committee on Sustainable Development on Tuesday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said an addition of 2.2 million Filipinos will become unemployed directly as a result of the pandemic. This will be on top of the 2.3 million who were already jobless at the start of 2020,

The total number of jobless Filipinos due to the pandemic is equivalent to a third of the 12 million night population of Metro Manila.

“We have in January of this year one of the lowest unemployment rates of 5.3 percent and because of the ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] we expect that actually to worsen significantly in April. The government—Neda and DOF [Department of Finance]—conducted a survey, [and] we basically found out that 2.2 million workers have also been affected or have been laid off,” he said. Chua said government agencies had also reported in early May that more workers were affected by the pandemic.

“Based on the Neda and DOF survey of the additional 2.2 million unemployed, that would mean that we are adding to the 5.3 unemployment rate another 4.9 percent, and that would mean we would hit double-digit unemployment in the second quarter [of the year],” he said.

Programs for workers

“Since the survey is conducted around April, we expect probably the unemployment to be around that level and it will be, I think, double-digit based on the assessment of other agencies. That is why immediately after the Bayanihan law was passed, we had pushed for the implementation of two very important programs worth around P205 billion for emergency subsidy that cover 18 million families and also P51 billion as small business wage subsidy,” he added.

According to Chua, the government will address some of these unemployment concerns “in what we think is the most balanced way of supporing these workers.

“We know that ECQ is going to affect workers significantly [but] we are of course waiting now for the results of the Labor Force Survey,” he said. The survey is expected to be released by end-June.

Solution

Meanwhile, Chua said the government will use its arsenal of tools to address the increasing unemployment rate.

“Aside from the government providing the emergency and wage subsidy, part of our thinking is the number of cash-for-work programs, including [those] for 136,000 contact tracers,” he said.

Chua said the government will also review its labor policy on wage reduction, skills retooling, unemployment insurance and pension portability system to complement the emergency, cash for work and wage subsidies.

“There is already a DOLE policy on voluntary reduction in wages so that both the employees and the employers can benefit and we support that,” he said. However, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo said the government should consider several ways to support wages because wage reduction has a big impact on the country’s poverty rate.

Moreover, Chua said over the medium term, “what we would like to push is a policy to protect the employment, not necessarily the jobs, because jobs can come and go. The crisis will affect the labor market but it will ensure that workers can be employable immediately, such as through skills retooling and other support that actually help the labor market.” Chua said the government is also looking at an unemployment insurance for Filipinos.

“We have no unemployment insurance or unemployment saving account and that [is] something we are keen on doing,” he said.

“[We also want] to look at a pension portability system because many of the workers in the government and private have not been in [a] pension system or have been OFWs,” he said. Chua said the resumption of infrastructure projects of the government is seen as a jobs generator for displaced workers.