Unemployment awaits 1 million graduates

Photo: Nico Arabe/Facebook.com

Associated Labor Union Spokesman, Alan Tanjusay said that job prospects are not going to be bright for the estimated 1 million students who are set to graduate this year.

Tanjusay said that new graduates will be facing various concerns like job-skills mismatch, short-term contractual work, low wages and unsafe workplaces.

“We don’t want to give this young workforce any false hope. Though we also don’t want to discourage them, these are the issues that confront our new graduates,” he said.

He also pointed out that the mismatch between skills and the actual jobs available in the market is the main reason for the growing problem of unemployment and underemployment in the country. Another concern is that the new graduates would be facing low entry-level minimum wage.

According to an October 2016 round of the government’s Labor Force Survey, there are about eight million workers who said that they need extra jobs to increase their daily income.

“The purchasing value of the current P491 entry-level daily wage for workers in the National Capital Region area has also eroded to P363 a day excluding mandatory social protection salary deductions and transportation and meal expenses,” Tanjusay explained.

Illegal contractual employment still prevails, thus making it hard enough for even long time employees to secure their posts.

“Seven out of ten of the current 41 million workers are contractual. Workers who were contractual more than five years ago remain as contractual until today, getting the same entry-level pay without security of tenure and the benefits that they are supposed to enjoy. That’s how bad and massive contractualization is,” Tanjusay said.

On the other hand, Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod assured that there will be thousands of jobs waiting for the graduates. He said that the DOLE’s PhilJobNet alone holds 10,756 job vacancies available for fresh graduates.
The Department of Labor encourages fresh graduates and even other job seekers as old as 15 years old to register and PhilJobNet while business owners and other employers are welcome to register as well.