P-noy disputes higher unemployment figures
President Aquino has disputed the higher unemployment figures reported in a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS). Speaking to reporters, Aquino yesterday said government figures belied the SWS survey showing that the country’s unemployment rate grew from 20.2 percent to 24 percent, representing an estimated 9.7 million Filipinos in the last three months.
“What was shown to me in general is... there is a .4 percent reduction, from 7.4 to 7 percent, that’s our unemployment figure,” he said. “(This) seems to belie the SWS survey. I think they cannot be both, they are opposites, they cannot be both true at the same time. So I want it reconciled.”
The SWS poll, conducted from Dec. 3 to 7, used face-toface interviews of 1,200 adults and had sampling error margins of plus or minus three percentage points for national and plus or minus six points for area percentages.
Out of the 24 percent unemployed, 10 percent were retrenched, nine percent resigned and five percent were first-time jobseekers, SWS said.
The National Economic and Development Authority said there could be a lot of factors that caused the discrepancies in the figures.
Aquino said that in October 2011, the employment generated was two million – from 36 million to 38 million – from October 2010. They had extensive meetings to understand how government statistics could be generated and validated so they could make the proper interventions to address unemployment and under- employment, he added.
The recent typhoons that hit the country could have contributed to the number of those who said they were unemployed, Aquino said.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said without denigrating the SWS survey, the Labor Force Survey (LFS) conducted quarterly by the National Statistics Office (NSO) would dispute the figures of SWS.
“We have 54,000 respondents... In fact, based on our figures for 2011, the unemployment figures went down,” he said.
Lacierda said the government had implemented shortterm and long-term programs to address both unemployment and underemployment.
“And, if you noticed, the President has been emphasizing that there’s a problem in our country on employment on the mismatched jobs and skills. That’s the reason why we need to address that mismatch between skills and jobs,” he said.
Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay challenged Malacañang yesterday to back up talks of plans and progress with concrete action in the wake of an SWS survey that nearly 10 million Filipinos are unemployed, with the number growing to 24 percent in December 2011 from 20.2 percent in previous polls.
“The government keeps the people’s hopes up with talks of partnerships, investments and so forth but so far, since their administration has taken charge, all of these have just been sound bites,” she said.
“Contrary to what they say, investors and foreign businesses are threatening to pack up their bags because this government is failing to address their concerns about their expenditures.
“The cost of doing business in the country remains high as compared to our other Asian neighbors. So, it comes as a nobrainer to some that it might be more practical to move their operations elsewhere.”
Magsaysay said college graduates have nowhere to go because the government has failed to channel them to courses and skills to make them marketable. An oversupply of nurses and medical professionals end up in the business process outsourcing industry as they cannot seek employment abroad, she added.