TUCP: PNOY still has no clear-cut strategies in creating jobs
By Russell Jay M. Manglicmot
As of January of this year, the unemployment rate surges to 7.5% from 7% since the start of President Aquino 3rd’s administration, said the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on Wednesday, thus making Aquino regime a failure with respect to the job creation. TUCP President and former senator Ernesto Herrera expressed his disappointment on President Aquino, saying that “the administration has not offered – not even in broad strokes – clear-cut strategies as to how it intends to forcefully create new jobs.” “We need sound, aggressive and actionable strategies to propel jobs growth in an orderly manner and remove hurdles to full employment. We also need extra ‘fast break’ measures to create new jobs for marginal households,” Herrera said in the evening before Labor Day. “Fast break” measures include the use of all available assets, including idle or non-performing government land, for public housing and other highly labor-intensive projects, and community employment programs tied to infrastructure projects. Philippine Statistics Authority’s data as of January 2014, 7.101 million Filipinos are underemployed, and 2.969 million are totally unemployed. In a separate survey conducted by Social Weather Stations said that 12.1 million individuals were completely without work in the last quarter of 2013, making the initial report of 7.5% to 27.5%. Furthermore, Herrera said that the administration should create three to four million new jobs every year in the next five years, to bridge the unemployment gap. He said that these jobs will provide income and increase in consumption. This increase stimulates the market, builds economy and provides additional revenue for government. |