THE International Labour Organization (ILO) said the latest employment figures should be examined beyond the headline unemployment rate after the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) linked higher labor force participation to greater confidence among Filipino jobseekers.
DOLE said more Filipinos entered the labor market and found work in June, reflecting the economy’s ability to generate employment while accommodating new jobseekers. Experts warned, however, that not enough jobs were being created for new entrants, posing a challenge that compounds the still-high underemployment rate.
Latest Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed the number of employed Filipinos increased to 50.66 million in June from 49.63 million in May.
During the same period, the labor force expanded by 1.12 million to 53.25 million, pushing the labor force participation rate to 65.1 percent from 63.8 percent.
Unemployment, however, edged up to 4.9 percent from 4.8 percent as the increase in employment fell slightly below the growth in the labor force.
DOLE attributed the higher unemployment rate largely to the influx of more than one million additional jobseekers during the month.
‘The rise in labor force participation signals greater confidence among Filipinos to seek employment,’ Labor Secretary Francis N. Tolentino said.
Tolentino added that the government must continue pursuing reforms that increase both the quantity and quality of available jobs while preparing workers for higher-value and future-ready employment.
Meanwhile, ILO Country Director Khalid Hassan said the figures tell only part of the country’s labor market story and require deeper analysis.
‘We have to see all these figures again with a deeper understanding,’ Hassan told the BusinessMirror.
He said policymakers should also consider the ‘jobs gap,’ a broader measure covering people without employment who want to work, including those who are not counted as unemployed because they are not actively looking for a job or are not immediately available to work.
‘What they do is that people who apply or are looking for jobs, that data is collected. But the people who are not looking for a job, that data is removed. And that is what we call jobs gap,’ Hassan said.
‘Yes, many people are having jobs. But what about underemployment? What about quality employment? These things have to be seen,’ Hassan added.
Hassan also told this newspaper that the Philippines must invest more in manufacturing and industrial development to generate additional jobs while strengthening education and training systems for employment opportunities expected to emerge from artificial intelligence and the transition to a greener economy.