(Eagle News) — The Department of Labor and Employment on Friday, June 5, expressed hope the country’s labor force would recover with the resumption of economic activities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III made the statement after a survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority found the country’s unemployment rate rose to a record-high 17.7 percent in April, equivalent to 7.3 million unemployed Filipinos.
“As the economy opens gradually, we are hopeful that the labor market will also recover,” Bello said, noting that the department already “expected” the results.
He said “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,” after all.
The lockdown from March to May, which was supposed to be the period for job hunting of fresh graduates, also “put the labor force in a standstill as two-thirds of the economy is shut down,” he said.
He said prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippine employment situation was vibrant, expanding at 4% or with 1.6 million net employment generated.
“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,” he said.
“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 added.
According to the PSA’s Labor Force survey, employment rate in April fell to 82.3 percent from 94.7 percent in January.
This translates to 33.8 million employed persons in April, as opposed to the 41.8 million people employed in April 2019.
The PSA said all regions reported double-digit unemployment rates, with the highest unemployment rate in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, at 29.8 percent.
BARMM was followed by Region III (Central Luzon) and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with unemployment rates at 27.3 percent and 25.3 percent, respectively.