Stronger security of tenure seen as key after job quality worsens
By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter
CONGRESS must promote higher-value work in response to the deterioration of the main job-quality indicator, while also strengthening security of tenure, labor advocates said.
“The government should seriously consider the passage of security of tenure bills pending before Congress in order to arrest widespread contractualization of labor that resulted in the proliferation of short-term employment contracts and precarious jobs,” Partido Manggagawa Chairman and former legislator Renato B. Magtubo said via Viber.
The underemployment rate, which measures the share of jobholders seeking more work or longer hours, increased to 12.1% in June from 9.9% in May, the Philippine Statistics Authority said on Wednesday.
“Current efforts of government related to jobs generation would amount to nothing unless we develop a comprehensive industrial policy backed by substantial public investment and by a state willing to actively intervene in the market,” Josua T. Mata, Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa secretary-general, said via Viber.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.1% in June from 4.1% a month earlier and 4.5% a year earlier. The June reading was the lowest since April 2005.
In a statement, Senator Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva said the underemployment indicator highlights the need to address the gap between worker skills and employer needs, and proposed fast-tracking a bill promoting enterprise-based learning.
The Senate approved the measure on second reading on Tuesday.
“The Enterprise-Based Education and Training Framework Act will complement the Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act, which we also principally authored and sponsored, in synergizing the government’s efforts in solving employment issues,” Mr. Villanueva said.
Last year, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed the Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act, which sets up an inter-agency council to draft an employment roadmap to improve the quality of jobs available.
He said his government aims to create at least three million new jobs through upskilling and reskilling programs.
In a July 2023 report, the Asian Development Bank said the Philippines should use education technology to bridge the skills gap or risk job losses due to rapid technological advances.
“The issue extends beyond merely having a skills gap; it involves our economy’s inability to advance beyond producing low-value added products,” Mr. Mata said, commenting on the enterprise-based learning bill.
“We need a comprehensive plan that would allow us to leapfrog to an economy producing higher value-added products.”