Gradual restart of economy to improve PH employment: DOLE

FILE: Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III during a press conference on Thursday (Sept. 27, 2018), which is held at the DOLE main office in Intramuros, Manila.(PNA photo by Gil Calinga)

MANILA – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Friday expressed hope that the employment situation in the country will improve following the reopening of the economy amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

“As the economy opens gradually, we are hopeful that the labor market will also recover. The Department is committed to preserve and protect employment as we await the approval and implementation of the whole-of-government Recovery Plan in the remainder of the Duterte Administration,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement.

Bello, meanwhile, encouraged private companies to continue to help the government in providing jobs to workers.

“Rest assured that we will continue to provide employment facilitation services, in different platforms – online, digital, face-to-face with the assistance of our Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs). We are also thankful to the private sector for continuously engaging with us in extending job opportunities to displaced Filipino workers,” he said.

He also urged more companies to help connect Filipino jobseekers with the much needed decent jobs “for the country and its economy to recover.”

Bello’s remarks came after the Labor Force Survey for April by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the country’s unemployment rate is at 17.7 percent, which translates to 7.3 million unemployed Filipinos.

The figure is the highest since the 1998 recession in the country, which saw an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent.

Aside from this, the country’s labor force participation rate dropped to 55.6 percent, the lowest in the history of the Philippine labor market.

He added that the enhanced community quarantine from March to May, which is supposed to be the period for job hunting of fresh graduates, has put the labor force in a standstill as two-thirds of the economy is shut down.

He said that before the pandemic, “the Philippine employment situation was vibrant, expanding at 4.0 percent or 1.6 million net employment generated.”

“With the imposition of community quarantine, hundreds of thousands of establishments resorted to temporary closures or flexible work arrangements as evidenced by millions of workers affected both in the formal, informal, and overseas sectors,” he added.