By John Victor D. Ordo?ez, Reporter
THE government’s best bet for improving job quality is to let in more investment in renewable energy (RE) and agriculture, after the indicator used as a proxy for job quality worsened in April, labor groups said.
“These investments, coupled with strong linkages to manufacturing, have the potential to create decent, productive, and sustainable jobs,” Jose G. Matula, president of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), said in a Viber message.
The jobless rate fell to a four-month low in April at 4.5% from 4.7% in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on June 9.
The underemployment rate, a measure of the degree to which workers are seeking more employment or longer hours, increased to 12.9% from 11.2% a month earlier.
Mr. Matula said the government should also provide more public sector-jobs and halt the retrenchment plans of government corporations like Duty-Free Philippines Corp. (DFPC).
In March, DFPC released the implementing rules and regulations for its rightsizing plan, which the FFW said could lead to the retrenchment of over 700 rank-and-file employees.
“Truth is, we should be generating more jobs than what we are getting,” Josua T. Mata, secretary general of Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa, said in a Viber message.
“The government has to discard its outmoded thinking that it has no business generating jobs,” he added.
The PSA estimates that agriculture was the second-largest employer in April, accounting for 21.9% of the workforce, trailing only services, which had a 61.1% share.
In April, the Department of Trade and Industry’s Board of Investments said the renewable energy sector accounted for the most investment approvals during the first quarter, rising 156% increase to P440 billion, followed by manufacturing, which surged 416% to P17 billion.
During the period, agriculture had P929 million in approved investment. The approvals in the first quarter were expected to generate at least 16,719 local jobs.
Last year, the Philippines opened its renewable energy industry to full foreign ownership. Prior to this policy, foreign ownership in renewable energy projects had been capped at 40%.
The Department of Labor and Employment has said it is working on upskilling the workforce ahead of the expected increase in foreign investment this year.
Mr. Matula said that “enterprises in these sectors must be subsidized in order to provide living wages to their workers.”