The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has offered a set of recommendations to the government towards employment recovery.
But the Asian Development Bank (ADB) expressed concern over the long-term impact of the pandemic on the labor market, warning it may take time for wage and salary employment to recover, and unemployment may may remain elevated or may increase even as the economy recovers.
PCCI president Benedicto Yujuico told the National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS) Summit for the Business Sector on Friday said industry sees challenges that may hinder the attainment of decent work and affect employment and livelihood of individuals: market confidence issues; community quarantine restrictions; shift to digitalization, education and ease of doing business.
To restart the economy, Yujuico cited the need to improve the government’s vaccine rollout and recognize industry workers as “essential”/economic frontliners as priority in the vaccination and improve community quarantine restrictions.
Yujuico also urged government to pump-prime the economy through more infrastructure projects and more procurement bids sourcing from local firms.
Yujuico said the government should set up a wage subsidy program to provide some relief for businesses in paying employees’ compensation and allow for some savings. This can be coupled with a waiver of payments on renewal of permits and licenses as well as transaction fees.
Market and consumer confidence issues, he said, can be addressed by intensifying marketing assistance and promotional campaigns of Filipino goods and services through “buy local” campaigns.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, NERS head, in response said the government supports PCCI’s recommendations and is working on the doables. These include local procurement, lowering the fees on the renewal of business permits, skills training of workers for technology jobs as well as the rollout of the central business portal and a business ID system that will ease transactions.
Kelly Bird, ADB country director for the Philippines, in the same forum said
while the unemployment numbers in the country have shown good improvements since its surge in the second quarter last year, 1.7 million wage and salary jobs in private establishments have been lost in the 12 months up to January 2021.
Bird said thousands of displaced workers moved into the informal sector and unemployment remains elevated at 8.8 percent of the labor force.
“The concern to many of us is that there will be long lasting impacts on the labor market. It may take time for wage and salary employment to recover, and unemployment may really may remain elevated or increase, even as the economy recovers. Now this may or may arise because a slow recovery in 2021… (and) could lead to destroyed productive capacity and jobs. Some sectors like tourism may take time to recover,” Bird said.
Bird noted as businesses, especially in the services sector shift to digital technologies, job seekers and unemployed workers may be out of work for longer periods and become less employable.
