(Eagle News) — Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Wednesday, May 2, noted the number of employed in the country increased to 41.8 million in January 2018, based on a study done by think-tank IBON Foundation.
Roque made the clarification following reports, citing the IBON study, that the number of underemployed grew by 1.1 million in January 2018, from the 6.4 million recorded in January 2017.
IBON said the underemployed now translates to 18 percent of the labor force, compared to the 16.3 percent recorded the previous year.
Roque noted that based on the IBON study released on Labor Day, the number of employed in January this year was a 2.5-million increase from the 39.3 million of employed recorded in the same period last year.
Employment rates, he said, were at 94.7% and 93.4%, respectively.
IBON said unemployment also dropped from 6.6 percent to 5.3 percent in the same period.
“Government continues to address and improve the labor situation in the country,” Roque said.
President Rodrigo Duterte on May 1, Monday, signed an executive order that strengthens the rights of workers to security of tenure, adding he was committed to ending “illegal contractualization.”
But militant labor groups said this was not enough as what was needed was an abolition of “contractualization” as a whole.