PH employment situation ‘stable’: DOLE

“The number of employed persons exhibited a generally increasing trend since 2010 though the year-on-year growth was erratic,” Ebarle said. (File Photo: By Ramon FVelasquez/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Monday said the employment situation in the country is stable.

In a press briefing Monday, Labor Undersecretary Renato Ebarle said there is an increasing trend of employment since 2010 with an average growth of 2.1 percent annually.

“The number of employed persons exhibited a generally increasing trend since 2010 though the year-on-year growth was erratic,” Ebarle said.

The DOLE is also expecting employment to grow in the succeeding years, citing the policies and programs of the Duterte administration.

“The government is on the right track when it comes to enabling policies, such as the ease-of-doing business, implementation of the Build, Build, Build projects, among others,” he added.

On the other hand, the DOLE official explained that the Social Weather Station (SWS) and Labor Force Survey (LFS) use different sample population, age, reference period of the survey, and criteria used to define the unemployed.

“The SWS surveys joblessness while the LFS counts the unemployed. A job refers to the type of work that a person does, while employment refers to a person with a job,” he noted.

Some 9.8 million Filipinos or 22 percent have no jobs, according to the recent 2018 Third Quarter Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

It is higher than the 8.6 million or 19.7 percent last June.