Sen. Francis G. Escudero awaits the submission of “real” unemployment data from the Duterte administration’s economic managers that, he stressed, should accurately reflect the number of jobless Filipinos from Aparri to Jolo.
The senator requested Executive officials to give the senators the “real picture” listing how many Filipinos of the right age, able-bodied and employable are not in the work force.
Escudero conveyed the request to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), even as he noted the definition of unemployment currently used by the government is “somehow confusing since it does not include those who are unpaid family workers.”
Escudero recalled that during the Arroyo administration, the government shifted the definition of employed workers and opted to follow International Labour Organization’s (ILO) standards.
He pointed out this immediately lowered unemployment rate from 11 percent to 7 percent, “because the ILO definition of employed, which we adapted and which we are still using today, would include unpaid family workers, as well as those who worked for at least one hour in the previous week.”
Escudero noted that “according to the Philippine Statistics Authority [PSA], employed persons include those who work even for an hour during the past week that the survey was conducted, unpaid family members, or those who work without pay on a business operated by a member of the same household, and those who have a job but not at work due to temporary illness, vacation, among others.”
On the other hand, the senator said, unemployed persons include all individuals, who are 15 years old without work, currently available for work and are willing to take a paid employment, and those who are actively seeking for a job, as defined by the PSA.
The senator also quoted Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia as saying that in 2017, unemployment rate was recorded at 5.7 percent, or about 2.4 million individuals, but this had gone down to 5.4 percent in the first half of 2018.
“But what is really the level of unemployment instead of making us all feel better that it’s going down? It’s only through the gaps and cracks of the nitty-gritty of defining it that it actually went down,” Escudero said, adding: “It would also be nice to know the level of employable work force among Filipinos. Ilan na ba talaga ’yung may trabaho na kumikita ng sapat [Just how man are employed with sufficient income]?”
At the same time, Escudero questioned Neda’s claim during the Senate briefing that the increase in the average income of individuals would compensate for inflation, which reached a five-year high of 5.7 percent in July.
“There was an 8.82-percent income hike, so even if there’s 5.7-percent inflation rise, it may remain tolerable. But if we do this, how do we raise the income of farmers? Through subsidies? Such a scenario could have been triggered by TRAIN, and we subsequently approved subsidy for jeepney drivers, but the delivery is highly inefficient. The subsidies which are supposed to be mitigating measures aren’t rolled out as fast,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.
Escudero voiced apprehension that “the numbers do not add up since the increase in income that the Neda is talking about does not take into consideration the minimum-wage earners,” adding that he was also “concerned about the minimum-wage earners because they’re the poor. They’re the ones who need help.
“When you want to reduce poverty, you look at the minimum-wage earners,” he said.