The latest Labor Force Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) last June reveals that the country’s current labor situation is still bogged down by persisting problems, think tank IBON Foundation noted.

Low wages, increased poverty rates, and self-employment continue until today that further implies the government’s incompetence in solving longstanding labor problems, the think tank added.

PSA’s report, for example, boasted a 2.25 million boom in employment this year. Although striking, IBON Foundation noted that most of the jobs that are being created currently are in the lowest-paying sectors, with the top four job-creating sectors being among the ones which pay the least.

The listed sectors include accommodation and food service activities, agriculture and forestry, wholesale and retail trade, and other service activities. Jobs in these industries average only P300 to P432 daily basic pay and obtained at least a 250,000 increase in workers.

Increased rates in poverty also further nullify the grandeur of this year’s high employment rate. Social Weather Station reports a 20.1 million increase of poor and borderline poor people in one year. 

The same thing goes for the total of households without savings. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas accounts for an almost 100,000 increase in households without savings which now totals to 18.8 million households. In terms of those who can save, “the percentage of respondents who could set aside money for savings in Q2 2023 decreased to 31.6 percent from 34 percent in Q1 2023,” as stated by the report.

A big chunk of this year’s job-creation inflation was also merely self-employment and informal work which in May 15, made up about 71.3 percent of net employment creation. IBON Foundation estimated that there was a 1.3 million growth in self-employment and informal workers, while 865,000 of this increase was in unpaid family workers which bloated to 4.6 million.

This coincides with the big 1.7 million employment loss in January 2023, particularly in full-time work, which meant that regular work became even scarcer. IBON in its assessment said that this refutes the administration’s hype of a booming economy, and that sugarcoating the problems only prevents the country from getting urgent solutions.

“The Marcos Jr administration should be less obsessed with constantly projecting a rosy picture of economic recovery and be more concerned with the harsh reality of poor-quality work, low incomes and high prices that millions of ordinary Filipinos are faced with,” said part of IBON’s assessment. ●