DoLE sets job creation goal at 7.2M by 2022
THE Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said that the government is targeting the creation of 7.2 million jobs by 2022, a target which if realized will exceed the estimated work force generated by the previous government.
DoLE Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said yesterday that the government plans to help generate 1.2 million jobs annually, starting at mid-year in 2017 up until the end of the current government’s term.
“About 1.2 in a million a year jobs,” he said in a news conference at a trade and employment forum when asked for the government’s employment target.
This is a much more ambitious goal compared to the net employment generated during the term of former President Benigno S. C. Aquino III, which according to the Deparment’s estimates, have seen the creation of around 4.3 million jobs.
Dominique R. Tutay, a director under the bureau of local employment, told reporters on the sidelines of the event that the government is currently banking on consistency, while noting that the Aquino government has hit the one million jobs a year level a handful of times.
“There are some years where only 300,000 jobs were generated by the economy, other times 500,000,” she said on the sidelines of the forum.
“During Aquino’s time, we were able to hit a million three times. Once in 2011, then in 2014, and the July 2016 total which we can still attribute to Aquino. The highest is July 2016 at 1.8 million jobs,” she added, noting the decline on unemployment rates during his term.
Meanwhile, Labor Undersecretary Dominador R. Say said that the 7.2 million target is achievable, noting that the government will bank on expanded employment in aeronautics, manufacturing, and services, among others.
DoLE is also moving towards meeting the demand for workers by the construction industry, in part by bringing more overseas Filipino workers back, while also encouraging more rural residents to join the industry.
“We will tie up with Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to train people to enter into the construction force. We hope we can get them trained for free.”