employment increases after the pandemic

The unemployment rate was 5% in September. It must be taken into account that many young people left the labor market due to the start of the school year and that underemployment also increased. The Department of Migrant Workers signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia for the protection of workers abroad.

Manila () – According to data just released by the Philippine Bureau of Statistics, citizens of working age (over 15 years of age) who were unemployed in September were 5% of the population, compared to 5.3 % of August. It must be considered, however, that exit from the labor market also increased due to the start of the school year. This caused many young people who had worked in the summer to join the classrooms, leading to an overall decrease of almost 48,000 workers. The percentage of underemployment also remains high and increasing, covering 15.4% of the active population, which is equivalent to 7.33 million workers – an increase of 1.3% compared to August.

The data is positive, despite the trend towards underemployment already pointed out by previous reports. In this sense, the local authorities make an appeal to avoid the exploitation of the migratory phenomenon, which implies far-reaching negative social consequences.

However, emigration is a necessary resource for the Philippines: it allows us to get out of poverty and underemployment and, in addition, remittances from emigrants sustain the national GDP – last year, they contributed 31,000 million dollars. An even more valuable resource in the post-pandemic era because, despite positive employment figures, the country continues to experience economic difficulties.

On November 7, the newly created Department of Migrant Workers announced that Filipino citizens could return to work in Saudi Arabia. Ties resumed after Manila decided to suspend sending Filipino wage earners – most of them women – in protest of discrimination and harassment perpetrated by Saudi employers.

This was reported by Susan Ople, head of the department, who pointed out that the agreements include a standardized employment contract that also includes insurance to cover unpaid wages and the possibility that workers change employers if abuses occur. There are thousands of court cases in progress for unpaid wages, and there are also many that denounce cases of human trafficking and degrading and inhuman treatment.

An estimated 190,000 Filipinos worked in Saudi Arabia before the pandemic. The figure shows that the Gulf monarchy is one of the main destinations for the Filipino diaspora, which represents around 10% of the population. But it also remains one of the most problematic, both because of the abuses to which immigrants are exposed and because of the difficulty of living their faith.