Employment rate sa bansa, pumalo sa 95.5% nitong Hunyo
Employment rate sa bansa, pumalo sa 95.5% nitong Hunyo
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00:00 The rise of employment rate in the country, we will discuss it with Sir E. Ortiz Luis Jr., the President of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines and Phil Expert.
00:10 Sir, good day to you.
00:12 Good day to you too.
00:14 Yes sir, the employment rate in the country increased by 95.5 percent last June.
00:26 What industries have been recorded to increase the employment rate?
00:31 Well, construction, agriculture, administrative services, and food services.
00:48 The government was helped by the public administration and defense and their activities.
00:58 Okay sir, what are the factors of the rise of the number of people with jobs in the country?
01:05 And what are the steps that the government has taken, particularly the Marcos administration, that contributed to the increase of employment?
01:16 First, we continuously left the pandemic era.
01:24 We continuously hired people and the government continuously encouraged investment.
01:33 President's trips are numerous and you can't expect that many investors will go home.
01:41 In the Philippines Chamber of Commerce, almost every week, we have delegations that entertain,
01:50 asking for partners and what business they can enter, especially President's trips.
02:01 It's likely that it will not be completed immediately, but it will continue.
02:08 We can see the increase in registration in PESA, in BOI, in those who are building businesses.
02:16 All of that is helping.
02:18 Okay sir, if we compare it to last year, the labor force increased, or the number of Filipinos who can work.
02:27 What are the steps or what can the ECOP do to help increase the number of Filipino workers?
02:34 First of all, two years ago, when we were already in the middle of the pandemic,
02:43 we were really helping the advocacy.
02:47 We had an agreement with Dole, DTI, manufacturers, BPOs, and tourism that will create 1 million jobs.
03:06 That's what we did.
03:08 This is incremental. We are not hiring people because of the pandemic.
03:12 These are additional jobs.
03:14 We are continuously doing training and matching to help.
03:20 And the problems like transportation, we are helping there.
03:28 And the mismatches that are happening, we are helping Dole on how to add more.
03:37 Okay sir, the underemployment rate in the country might also decrease compared to last year.
03:44 How important is the upskilling and reskilling programs of the government,
03:48 and the private sector to address underemployment?
03:52 Well, you know, underemployment during the pandemic,
03:57 a lot of companies are doing part-time jobs, a lot of companies are allowing 3 days per person.
04:09 So a lot of innovative innovations were made.
04:13 While creating jobs, while opening other companies,
04:17 those who lost their jobs are being rehired.
04:20 And in reality, not only those who lost their jobs, remember,
04:23 every year, the new graduates and those who are getting old to work,
04:27 about 800,000 to 1 million people enter the labor market.
04:35 You need to upskill that, that's what we and the government are doing.
04:44 Okay sir, in other matters, we just got through the pandemic.
04:51 The gross domestic product of the Philippines increased by 5.3 percent in the first half of this year.
04:58 What do you think are the factors that helped our GDP to increase?
05:05 Well, we are continuously opening companies.
05:13 But remember, our GDP increased, it was short of our target.
05:18 Our target was high of 7 percent, 6 percent.
05:25 Between that and our target during this period.
05:29 We didn't meet that.
05:31 Our GDP increased little by little.
05:33 So we need to catch up.
05:35 I can see one big shortcoming,
05:40 the spending of the government.
05:43 The budget of the departments is not spending.
05:49 It's understandable because the people, the new administration,
05:55 they're still studying, they don't know how to use the money.
06:00 But maybe they need to speed up the use of the budget.
06:04 I think they're behind the budget schedule for spending.
06:10 Okay sir, NEDA also said, like what you said earlier,
06:14 that the country needs to reach 6.6 percent of GDP in the second half of 2023
06:22 to meet the target of 6 to 7 percent for the whole year.
06:26 Do you think this is achievable?
06:29 It can be done.
06:32 As long as there are no more accidents beyond our control.
06:38 For example, this is our fuel, we don't know if it will be used again.
06:44 Then the climate of July,
06:49 it's a big obstacle and a big pervasion to our agriculture.
06:55 I hope we can catch up.
07:00 It looks like the weather is getting better.
07:02 It looks like the government's programs are continuing,
07:08 the build-build-build project, and the investment of investors.
07:14 I hope we can reach it.
07:19 Okay sir, lastly, what are the industries that are looking for employees now?
07:27 Well, manufacturing, construction,
07:33 and the government's programs on build-build-build.
07:37 There are many industries.
07:39 Other industries that we don't notice much,
07:45 like tourism,
07:48 there are also industries that we need to pay attention to
07:54 because they can help a lot, like the mining industry.
07:58 We used to look at our policy a lot,
08:04 now we are looking at it more,
08:07 and we understand that the miners are not irresponsible miners.
08:11 We should look at it,
08:15 like for example, our nickel.
08:18 We have a big supply of nickel,
08:21 and it's the second biggest supply of nickel that we need
08:24 for the development of many factories.
08:30 We should be able to build,
08:35 so that we don't have to spend a lot of nickel.
08:38 We should refine our production.
08:40 That's what investors need.
08:42 I heard that there are investors
08:46 who are building that,
08:52 and that will help us a lot.
08:54 Thank you very much for all the information.
08:57 We were able to interview Sir Yortiz Luis Jr.,
09:01 the President of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines
09:04 and of Phil Export.
09:05 Thank you very much, sir.
09:07 Thank you very much.