THE Covid-19 crisis hit the country’s work force when it hurt the most: the job hunting season of new graduates.
This, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said, compounded the impact of the over a month-long enhanced community quarantine of Luzon as of April, leading to the to sky-rocketing unemployment rate of 17.7 percent as announced by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
“The lockdown during the community quarantine from March to May, which is supposed to be the period for job hunting of our fresh graduates, has put the labor force in a standstill as two-thirds of the economy is shut down,” Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said in a news statement.
He noted PSA’s recently reported 17.7-percent unemployment rate during the period, which translates to 7.3 million unemployed, surpassed the 10-percent unemployment rate in the 1998 recession in the Philippines.
The labor chief said they hope unemployment figures will go down starting May, when the government started relaxing community quarantine nationwide, allowing many companies to reopen.
DOLE earlier said it expected the number of unemployed workers to reach 3 million to 5 million this year because of the Covid-19 crisis. However, it did not expect it will happen as early as April.
Data limitations
In its displacement report, DOLE was able to register 2.8 million workers who were temporarily displaced, or engaged in flexible work arrangement, but it was unable to record any permanently displaced worker.
It is only this month that the agency has started getting reports from companies in the formal sector of the economy, as some started processing the retrenchment of their employees.
Labor advocate group, Defend Jobs Philippines (DJP), criticized DOLE for having data inconsistent with that from the PSA.
“The Labor Department must be true to itself and be honest enough with its figures and data on the actual number of affected workers due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” DJP spokesman Thaddeus Ifurung said.
Labor Assistant Secretary Officer in Charge Dominique R. Tutay, however, explained their data is different from the PSA’s.
“PSA is macro data, while ours is administrative data. If it is macro, it’s representative of the economy,” Tutay told the BusinessMirror in an SMS.
“Ours is actual data but with limitation as there are companies, who may not report [their displacement figures to us]. The informal sector workers are also not included yet in our administrative data as well,” she added.
Government response
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the government anticipated the labor impact of Covid-19, thus it launched its comprehensive Social Amelioration Program (SAP), which provided cash aid for different sectors.
“The administration thus implemented various forms of subsidies during the period of enhanced community quarantine to assist affected workers,” Roque said in a statement.
These include the SAP by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Covid 19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), the Abot-Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP) for displaced OFWs, Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) by the DOLE; Financial Subsidy for Rice Farmers (FSRF) by the Department of Agriculture (DA); and the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) Program by the Department of Finance (DOF).
The Department of Budget of Management (DBM) earlier reported that the government had released P353.8 billion for these initiatives.
Most of the projects have limited funding and are not expected to go beyond this year.
Moving forward
To provide a long-term solution for the mass displacement, DJP as well as the Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro) urged the government to prepare a significant recovery plan to help companies and their employees cope with effects of Covid-19.
Ifurung said the assistance could be in the form of additional emergency cash and non-cash aid like new employment opportunities.
Sentro Secretary-General Joshua Mata said the aid should be well-funded. He issued the statement after the DOF was reportedly pushing to limit the recovery program for the labor sector to just P130 billion.
Until the bill is passed into law, Bello said they will coordinate with Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs) to provide employment facilitation for the displaced workers.