Rise in number of part-time workers belies 'favorable labor market' claims, says think tank
MANILA, Philippines — Research group IBON Foundation has thumbed down the labor market gains being touted by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.
This after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported a softening of the unemployment and underemployment rates last June 2023.
The PSA last Friday said that joblessness dropped to 4.3%, a percentage equivalent to around 2.17 million unemployed Filipinos. However, these figures don't show how many of the newly generated jobs were actually for full-time and regular positions, said the think tank.
"Looking at labor force data by hours worked shows worsening informality. The number of part-time workers or those working less than 40 hours grew by 1.4 million from 15.7 million in June 2022 to 17.1 million in May 2023. The number of those ‘with a job, not at work’ also grew 362,000 to 737,000," according to IBON this Saturday.
"Taken together, there was a 1.8 million increase in this likely poor quality and poorly paying work. In contrast, the number of full-time workers or those working more than 40 hours, even fell by 128,000 from 30.5 million to 30.4 million."
Said data was extracted after comparing the May 2023 labor force figures with those for June 2022, indicating that informality grew "drastically" in the first 11 months of the Marcos Jr. administration.
The researchers noted that while there was net employment creation of 1.7 million in the first year of the current administration, this was mostly temporary, irregular and insecure work with declines in full-time work and in work in private establishments.
Data by class of worker also seemingly confirmed the trend of growing informality as the number of wage and salary workers in private establishments declined by 180,000 from 22.6 million in June 2022 to 22.4 million in May 2023.
"On the other hand, the number of self-employed grew by 555,000 (from 13 million to 13.6 million), of those working in private households by 290,000 (from nearly 2 million to 2.3 million), and of those in family farms or businesses by over 1 million (from 4.8 million to 5.8 million)," IBON continued .
"This seems to indicate that the loss of regular work in the private sector is forcing more Filipinos to become self-employed just to make any sort of income or earnings for themselves and their families. Particularly concerning is the substantial rise in unpaid family workers by 684,000 from 3.7 million to 4.4 million."
These numbers is said to be the second highest number of unpaid family workers ever recordced after the 4.8 million in February 2023.
Marcos elated by employment figures
Marcos, on the other hand, was happy about the recently released lower unemployment and underemployment figures as both rates are now in single digits.
"Ang sinimulan namin last year ng 17 % halos ang unemployment rate. Ngayon, mga 6 percent na lang. Kaya’t iyon pa rin, iyon pa rin ang... puno’t dulo nitong lahat ay trabaho talaga," he said in a media interview yesterday.
"Lahat naman ng ating ginagawa sa ekonomiya ay para mabigyan hindi lamang ‘yung underemployed na klase na trabaho kundi ‘yung magandang trabaho na may future, may benefits... Kaya’t nakakatuwa naman dahan-dahan ay umaakyat ‘yung numero ng employed dito sa Pilipinas."
The chief executive also pointed out that there has to be continous economic activity to generate jobs which would result in domestic growth and development in the country.
It could be remembered that the regional wage board in the National Capital Region has recently approved a P40 increase in the minimum wage for non-agriculture workers, a move that progressive groups saw as being insensitive and stingy.
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