The worsening joblessness and underemployment reflect the backward and crisis-ridden state of the economy. It shows the folly of the neo-liberal policies of privatization, liberalization, and deregulation, not to mention the inability of the Arroyo administration in addressing poverty.

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat

A study by Ibon Foundation reveals that the Arroyo administration has the worst sustained joblessness rates compared to previous administrations after registering an 11.4 percent unemployment rate in 2005. The unemployment rate has been registering double digit figures since 2001. It was able to claim a single digit figure, an adjusted rate of 7.7 percent for 2005, only after shifting to a “new” definition to exclude those not “actively seeking for work”.

While it claimed a slight improvement in January this year, 10.7 percent by the old definition and 7.4 percent by the new definition, an analysis of the 750,000 jobs it supposedly generated in 2005 shows that the country fared no better. Data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) shows that 51.86 percent or 389,000 of the jobs created were in unpaid family work mostly in agriculture. Another 35.06 percent or 263,000 were in the own-account category. Thus, a mere 13.06 percent or 98,000 jobs generated since January last year were wage and salary workers.

The number of wage and salary workers already fell by 156,000 in 2005 as compared to 2004. On the other hand, the number of own account and unpaid family workers increased by 855,000 in 2005. Aside from this, the underemployment rate is continuously increasing. From 17 percent of the total labor force in 2004, it increased to 21 percent in 2005. Underemployment for January 2006 is at 21.3 percent or 6.9 million workers, an increase of 1.8 million from its 5.1-million level in January 2005.

In interviews with BusinessWorld, Prof. Solita Monsod of the University of the Philippines School of Economics said that the “quality of jobs created is not good.” University of Asia and the Pacific economist Stephen Huang said that the “jobs created were not productive or does not add to the economy.”

In a press release, Ibon Foundation said, “Even these already alarming figures do not reveal the true extent of joblessness in the country. Ibon estimates that the actual employment rate in the country is only 58.4% instead of the official 91.9%, while 41.6% suffer from job scarcity (including the underemployed, workers who leave for jobs abroad, and housewives and other sectors considered ‘not in the labor force’ but would work if only jobs were available).”

This situation clearly belies the Arroyo government’s claims that the economy is on the right track and makes irrelevant the 6.1 percent growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2005.

The worsening joblessness and underemployment reflect the backward and crisis-ridden state of the economy. It shows the folly of the neoliberal policies of privatization, liberalization, and deregulation, not to mention the inability of the Arroyo administration in addressing poverty.

Worsening poverty and hunger

The government’s statistics on poverty are likewise unbelievable. The latest data of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) shows that 30.4 percent of Filipinos are poor in 2003, an improvement from the 33 percent registered in 2000.

However, this is due to the very low minimum annual per capita income. In 2003, the NSCB claims that the threshold is at P12,475 ($243.37, based on an exchange rate of P51.26 for every US dollar) for the whole country and P14,178 ($276.59) in urban areas. For 2004, it set the national threshold at P13,113 ($255.81), of which P8,734 ($170.39) was intended for sustaining food needs and the balance of P4,379 ($85.43), for other basic needs.

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