Favila needs to look at government figures, workers say

The labor group, Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) today challenged Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila to look at the government figures on unemployment and job creation and see how the unemployed Filipinos have been selective of the jobs that come their way.

According to Josua Mata, APL Secretary General, the Labor Force Survey of the National Statistics Office as of January 2006 indicated a sudden rise in underemployment the past year.

Visible underemployment, which is the share of part-time workers looking for additional work to total employment, rose to 12.4 percent in 2005, the highest since the current statistical series started in 1988. This is also referred to as involuntary part-time employment since the desire for work obviously indicates that their status as part-time workers is only for lack of full-time work.

"In other words, the higher underemployment rate is not the result of reduced work hours but a greater desire for additional work among the underemployed-among the poorest of the population-in the face of sharply rising cost of living," said Mata.

Mata said a more comprehensive measure of the availability of job opportunities is the employment-to-population ratio, which is the share of the working-age population (aged 15 years and older) that is employed.

The NSO's year-end report showed this ratio deteriorated to 59.4 percent in 2005 from 59.5 percent in 2004 bringing it back to its 1998 level.

"Secretary Favila cited the lost opportunity for 7,000 Filipino workers in the Korean shipbuilder in Subic. He should not be choosy also in looking at the problems facing the country today. We are talking of 22 million people without work in 2005, up half a million from 2004 or 3 million from 1998," Mata said.