The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced today that the number of underemployed Filipinos rose from 16.3 percent in July 2017 to 17.2 in July this year, saying that more Filipinos are looking for ways to find additional sources of income aside from their full-time jobs.
In an interview with ABS-CBN, Ateneo Graduate School of Business professor Wilfrido Arcilla said: “If your underemployment is increasing, that tells you that a lot of our employees are looking for more work in order to augment their incomes especially in the context of rising inflation that will erode their purchasing power.”
The PSA also announced today that the inflation rate reached 6.4 percent in August, making it the highest inflation rate to be recorded in nine years.
As Filipino families are faced with the increase in food and fuel prices, it’s a no-brainer that those employed would seek other revenue streams.
Despite this, however, Department of Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno is pleased with the latest figures, because it showed that unemployment has lowered from 5.6 percent from July 2017 to 5.4 percent to July this year.
No kidding — a 0.2 percent difference is enough to make him happy.
He said at a forum today that people with jobs will be more tolerant of the skyrocketing prices.
He said: “We are confident that employment will really improve. We know that with Build, Build, Build going full blast, we are going to create a lot of jobs.”
Build, Build, Build is a creatively named government program that aims to increase the government’s infrastructure projects. As its name clearly suggests, the government will build various infrastructure, from roads and to bridges.
According to the latest PSA data, unemployment was highest at the Ilocos Region (6.5 percent), followed by Central Luzon (6.3 percent), CALABARZON (6.3 percent), Bicol Region (6.3 percent), and the National Capital Region (6.1 percent).
