OUR RECOVERY from the coronavirus pandemic will be determined by how our government effectively addresses the many challenges related to the COVID-19 health crisis. It is tough, and the statistics is grim.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that unemployment rose to 8.1% last month. This is equivalent to 3.88 million Filipinos, up from 6.9% recorded in July, according to the PSA.
PSA also bared that the underemployment rate, or the percentage of the working population looking for more work, went down to 14.7% in August from 20.9% logged the preceding month.
A total of 44.23 million Filipinos have work in August, for an employment rate of 91.9%. In terms of percentage, this is lower than July’s 93.1%, but the number of those employed is higher than July’s 41.67 million, it added.
The government’s joblessness data came out in the face of the monthly report by Bloomberg, which ranked the Philippines as the worst place to be in COVID among 53 economies in the world. Bloomberg, which conducts every month its COVID Resilience Ranking of the best and worst places to be amid the pandemic, saw the Philippines falling to the last spot based on 12 datapoints related to virus containment, the economy and opening up.
The Philippines’ drop to No. 53 reflects the challenges it’s facing from the onslaught of the delta variant, which has hit Southeast Asia particularly hard amid difficulties containing the more contagious strain and slow vaccination rollouts. The region, which recently had the worst outbreak in the world, populates the September Ranking’s lowest rungs, with Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam all in the bottom five
The government must strike a balance to boost employment and keep workers safe from the coronavirus so the country can move forward to the full reopening of the economy. While it is indeed difficult to balance health and the economy, it is imperative that we achieve it. Our survival as a people and country depend on it.
