Government Uses Employment Figures to Paint Rosy Picture

The President’s past, present and future state-of-the-nation addresses (SONAs) have something in common: Government is wont to use statistics as basis for claiming economic growth, particularly how it results in job generation. The same statistics, however, can be interpreted to prove the exact opposite.

BY DANILO ARAÑA ARAO
Bulatlat

The President’s past, present and future state-of-the-nation addresses (SONAs) have something in common: Government is wont to use statistics as basis for claiming economic growth, particularly how it results in job generation. The same statistics, however, can be interpreted to prove the exact opposite.

Differences in interpretation are not just rooted in the framework one uses. It is not just an issue of a half-filled glass of water being seen as either half-empty or half-full, depending on one’s mindset. In the case of government officials, it appears that they tend to highlight only the aspects that are useful to bolster their claims of a good labor situation.

An advertisement of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) titled “Let the Numbers Speak: Our Economy is on the Upswing” gives one the impression that Filipinos have a lot of reasons to celebrate, particularly on the issue of job generation. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye reinforced this optimistic outlook when he said last July 21 that while the country is facing challenges, “the bullish outlook is undiminished.”

In the PIA advertisement, the Arroyo administration is said to have created 4.9 million jobs as of December 2005, already “nearly half-way” the government’s target of 10 million jobs by 2010. Investments in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) worth P68 billion ($1.3 billion, based on an exchange rate of P52.165 per US dollar) reportedly created 70,000 new jobs in 2005. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) jobs, examples of which are call center agents, reportedly increased to 162,250 jobs for Filipinos also in 2005.

These figures have hardly made a dent in the country’s labor situation. According to the Labor Force Survey, there are still 2.9 million jobless Filipinos and 8.4 million underemployed (working less than 40 hours weekly) as of April 2006. In the same way that no work means no income for the unemployed Filipinos, less hours of work means less pay for the employed ones.

Of the 2.9 million unemployed, a little more than one million of them cited as reasons for not looking for work their being “tired/believed no work is available (607,000)” and “waiting for rehire/job recall (394,000).”

It is clear that even government figures reflect the pessimism of the country’s labor force with regard to jobs available in the country. The sheer number of those who are tired and believe that there is no work available cannot be conveniently dismissed as mere insolence. The similarly sizable number of those waiting for rehire or job recall reflects the prevalence of labor contractualization nationwide. This simply means that workers are slowly being deprived of benefits that regular ones should be entitled to, especially security of tenure.

For the 33 million employed Filipinos, however, having a job does not guarantee that they can already provide for their family’s needs. This figure includes those classified as unpaid family workers, mostly in agriculture, and own account workers.  Employment in construction and manufacturing, where most wage and salary workers are, decreased.  Moreover, not all workers receive the minimum wage. Small factories normally apply for exemption from implementing the minimum wage.   

Even those receiving the minimum wage still have to make do with low wages amid high cost of living. In the National Capital Region (NCR), the daily minimum wage amounts to only P350 ($6.71) while the daily family living wage (family income necessary to provide for the needs of a family of six) is pegged at P749 ($14.36).  

Given the domestic labor situation, it comes as no surprise that going abroad becomes a worker’s primary objective. This is, after all, not an issue of choice but a situation of force majeure.

The growing number of documented and undocumented Filipino migrants may be gleaned from the astronomical increase in remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo became President. Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) show that OFW remittances increased by 77% from $6.0 billion in 2001 to $10.7 billion in 2005.

Given these figures, there is cogent reason to be pessimistic about the country’s employment situation, and one wonders what ever happened to the claim that government has generated 4.9 million jobs. For those who are poor, this was hardly felt as they try to survive the daily grind. Beyond the statistics, their plight serves as proof that the claims of an improved labor situation are nothing but government propaganda. Bulatlat

BACK TO TOP ■  PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION  ■   COMMENT

© 2006 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Media Center

Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.