RP jobless rate up 50% sans overseas employment - TUCP

The number of jobless Filipinos would have soared by almost 50 percent in 2007 if not for the overseas employment of a large segment of the national labor force, according to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

In a statement, TUCP spokesperson Alex Aguilar said had the government completely stopped sending workers overseas, the country’s unemployment rate would have surged by as high as 9.3 percent last year.

Records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that a total of 1,073,402 Filipino workers were deployed abroad in 2007, which was roughly the same number as the 1,062,567 who left for overseas jobs in 2006.

“Assuming those who left to work abroad stayed home instead, and assuming further that they did not find any gainful employment here, then the ranks of wholly unemployed Filipinos would have ballooned to 3,335,102," Aguilar said.

Based on the results of the latest Labor Force Survey, a total of 2,261,700 Filipinos, or 6.3 percent of the country’s 35.9-million labor force, were entirely unemployed as of October 2007.

“Adding the 1,073,402 who were deployed overseas to the ranks of the jobless would have increased to 3,335,102 the total number of completely unemployed Filipinos, or around 9.3 percent of the labor force," Aguilar said.

“While many of the Filipinos who left for overseas jobs last year could have qualified for full or part-time employment here, they surely would have displaced other labor force participants who were otherwise gainfully engaged," Aguilar added.

The last labor force survey also showed that of the 33,638,300 Filipinos that were considered “employed" as of October, some 18.1 percent or 6,088,532 were actually “underemployed," or eagerly looking for additional work to support themselves and their families.

Citing these figures, Aguilar said there is need for the government to “take the lead in creating new jobs." He proposed a national employment plan that would compel every agency and state-owned firm to carry out more labor-intensive projects.

“Let us ensure labor-intensiveness in each public project and in every private sector endeavor. Let us compel each agency to set achievable employment targets. Then let us assign an inter-agency panel to monitor performance in terms of job creation," Aguilar said. - GMANews.TV

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