DTI: Phl on right track to recovery
This is a result of our efforts to gradually reopen the economy and further ease community quarantine restrictions
Citing the latest 91.3 percent unemployment rate, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez emphasized that the country is on the right track towards economic recovery.
Lopez over the weekend insisted that despite the setbacks encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was elated seeing an increase in our country’s employment rate.
“This is a result of our efforts to gradually reopen the economy and further ease community quarantine restrictions. Considering that we were also hit hard by a succession of typhoons recently, we were still able to attain the highest employment rate since April of this year,” he said.
Recent findings from the Labor Force Survey (LFS), the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) posted that the employment rate in October 2020 was estimated at 91.3 percent, which is the highest rate since April 2020, translating to about 39.8 million employed Filipinos out of the 43.6 million who were part of the country’s labor force for the said month.
The survey also showed that in terms of unemployment, the recorded rate in October 2020 went down to 8.7 percent coming from 17.6 percent recorded in April this year.
Additionally, underemployment rate in October 2020 declined to 14.4 percent as compared to the April rate of 18.9 percent.
The country’s labor force participation rate (LFPR), on the other hand, posted a lower 58.7 percent in October 2020, from 61.9 percent in July 2020, considered to be the second lowest LFPR in the history of the Philippine labor market, following 55.7 percent in April 2020.
The Trade chief noted that “although this is a good sign of recovery, the country has not yet achieved its pre-COVID unemployment rate of five percent.”
He said the Trade department is “expecting the unemployment rate to be back at a single-digit level. And it would have been better of course if there were lesser restrictions and calamities that hit the country.”
This can be attributed to the liquid financial market as a possible factor that could further improve the country’s employment rate, relaying that the country’s financial market could finance more investments or working capital and urged more commercial banks to accelerate their lending, he explained.
Meanwhile, Lopez stressed that in order for the micro, small and medium enterprises to fully recover, as well as support the economy, Filipino consumers should prioritize buying l o c a l l y ma d e products.
“This would help save jobs, which could keep our people employed. DTI remains committed to improving our labor market, which would boost economic activities for the rest of 2020 and the years to come. However, we still need to keep and observe minimum health protocols as we manage the virus,” he stressed.