Gov’t vows actions to curb unemployment

The government has vowed there would be no letup in efforts to generate more job opportunities in the country after a survey showed an increased unemployment rate and pessimism on the employment situation.

“The Palace is seriously looking at the third 2018 survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showing adult joblessness at 22% and is continuously finding ways to improve the local employment situation,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

“Indeed, there will be no let-up in our efforts to bring down the unemployment rate and increase labor participation among our youth and women,” he added.

Panelo cited that the government was committed to promote a businessfriendly environment to attract more job-generating investments in the country.

He said the President recently signed Republic Act No. 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business Act, to streamline business processes and reduce processing time in all government agencies “to make the country more conducive to investments thereby creating more and better jobs for our people.”

The government was also moving to enhance the competitiveness of the country’s human resources, according to Panelo.

“We are likewise developing our human resources, and with the designation of Mr. Isidro Lapena as DirectorGeneral of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) we are confident that he can contribute in our employment targets by improving industry-relevant competencies of our youth, especially unutilized, unemployed, and underemployed school dropouts, and increase their opportunities for work experience through skills training,” Panelo said.

In the Social Weather Stations survey, 22 percent or about 9.8 million individuals were jobless in the third quarter of 2018.

The figure is higher than the 8.6 million or 19.7 percent unemployment rate in June this year.

The unemployment rate was reportedly highest in Metro Manila at 26.4 percent, followed by Balance Luzon at 22.9 percent, Mindanao at 19.7 percent and Visayas at 19.6 percent.

Jobless Filipinos are those who were retrenched, voluntarily left their old jobs, and first-time job seekers.

The same survey showed more Filipinos were pessimistic about the employment situation in the next 12 months.

Pessimism on job availability increased to 16 percent from 15 percent in June this year.

Optimism on the other hand dropped to 39 percent from 47 percent in June.