SEN. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada yesterday said he will seek clarification from the Department of Labor and Employment on the employment rate in the country as mentioned by President Marcos Jr. in his second State of the Nation Address last Monday.
While a 95.7 percent employment rate in the country is most welcome, Estrada said he will have to double check the figures since according to the Senate minority, a 95.7 percent employment rate would mean that the country has “full employment.”
“‘Yung employment rate siguro nag-improve naman. But I don’t think it is that high. I still don’t want to comment kasi di ko alam ang data (Maybe the unemployment rate improved, but I don’t think it is that high. I still don’t want to comment [further] because I have yet to see the data),” Estrada, chairman of the Committee on Labor, Employment, and Human Resources Development, said.
In his second SONA, Marcos said that based on a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority dated July 7, the employment rate in the country has risen to 95.7 percent, which means that at least 48.26 million Filipinos are employed.
The July figure was 13.3 percent higher than the 82.4 percent employment rate as of April 2020.
Estrada said it is better to have the data from DOLE since it has the database of employment and unemployment records.
“It should come from DOLE, not from PSA kasi ang nakaka-alam niyan ay DOLE (because it is DOLE who knows it). I will seek clarification from DOLE,” he said.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III earlier said the 95.7 percent employment rate in the country mentioned in the second SONA was “unbelievable” since joblessness is still prevalent in the country.
Pimentel said: “We have to really double check our figures and agency supplying us with figures, i-challenge natin (we should challenge them) to come up with accurate figures.”
He said the figures mentioned by Marcos would mean that the country has “full employment” since the economy has less than 5 percent of its workforce unemployed.
“That’s considered full employment. That’s far from reality,” he added.
