‘Covid-19 to swell jobless numbers to 4.5M in 2020’
THE coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic will swell the number of Filipinos losing their jobs this year to 4.5 million, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
P205 billion for emergency subsidy that cover 18 million families and also P51 billion as small business wage subsidy,” he added.
According to Chua, the government will address some of these unemployment concerns “in what we think is the most balanced way of supporing these workers.
“We know that ECQ is going to affect workers significantly [but] we are of course waiting now for the results of the Labor Force Survey,” he said. The survey is expected to be released by end-june.
Solution
MEANWHILE, Chua said the government will use its arsenal of tools to address the increasing unemployment rate.
“Aside from the government providing the emergency and wage subsidy, part of our thinking is the number of cash-for-work programs, including [those] for 136,000 contact tracers,” he said.
Chua said the government will also review its labor policy on wage reduction, skills retooling, unemployment insurance and pension portability system to complement the emergency, cash for work and wage subsidies.
“There is already a DOLE policy on voluntary reduction in wages so that both the employees and the employers can benefit and we support that,” he said. However, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo said the government should consider several ways to support wages because wage reduction has a big impact on the country’s poverty rate.
Moreover, Chua said over the medium term, “what we would like to push is a policy to protect the employment, not necessarily the jobs, because jobs can come and go. The crisis will affect the labor market but it will ensure that workers can be employable immediately, such as through skills retooling and other support that actually help the labor market.” Chua said the government is also looking at an unemployment insurance for Filipinos.
“We have no unemployment insurance or unemployment saving account and that [is] something we are keen on doing,” he said.
“[We also want] to look at a pension portability system because many of the workers in the government and private have not been in [a] pension system or have been OFWS,” he said. Chua said the resumption of infrastructure projects of the government is seen as a jobs generator for displaced workers.