While the Philippines’ latest jobless figure is comparable to those of most developed countries, the challenge lies in the quality of available jobs, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.
Balisacan thus highlighted the importance of grabbing the opportunity to bring in more investments into the country to create better quality employment.
On the second day of the Post-State of the Nation Address Discussion held in Manila yesterday, Balisacan said the government remains on track on its goal of reducing the poverty rate to nine percent by the end of the current administration’s term.
“Given the recent developments, economic data that we have seen, we are definitely on track. The economy is growing,” Balisacan said.
He said the Philippines’ unemployment rate of 4.3 percent last May is “very low” and is “the kind of unemployment data you see in most developed countries.”
“Now that’s where the challenges come in. The number of jobs is one thing, but the quality of those jobs is another thing. That’s where most of my colleagues here are so much engrossed into improving the quality of jobs available, improving the employability of our workers, enhancing the human capital of our people so that the labor market can work effectively and efficiently, and workers are able to match the kind of jobs that are needed by emerging sectors, like the internet, the AI (artificial intelligence), the green economy, and so on,” Balisacan said.
“That’s the primary reason why we are so much into going around the world, ralking to the business community, to all investors to get investment coming to the country. Because without investment, there is no way you can improve that quality of jobs,” he added.
The NEDA chief noted the need to build more infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and factories, among others, to be able to employ more people in areas where there can be decent income.
“We want to quickly catch up with our dynamic neighbors. Now we have the opportunity. The stars are aligned and if (we) miss this time, I don’t know where we are going,” Balisacan said.
“But I am definitely sure that given this alignment, there’s good governance that we have right now, the popularity of our President, the clarity of our development blueprint, and this collaboration that we have between government and the private sector and the academe. I think that when we get all our acts together… there is no reason that we can fail this time,” he added.
