Marcos: Job creation remains a priority

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Friday that providing opportunities for Filipinos to be employed is among the focus of his administration.

Marcos made the remarks following the recent Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Labor Force Survey showing the Philippines’ unemployment rate in May continued to decline due to increased economic activity.

“Ito ‘yung talagang priority sa atin is trabaho. Kaya’t lahat naman ng ating ginagawa sa ekonomiya ay para mabigyan hindi lamang yung underemployed na klase ng trabaho kundi ang magandang trabaho na may future, may benefits,” Marcos told reporters in a chance interview at the graduation rites of the Philippine Army Officer Candidate Course in Taguig.

(Employment is one of our priorities. All of our economic initiatives are meant to provide gainful employment.)

“Kaya’t nakakatuwa naman at dahan-dahan ay umaakyat ‘yung numero ng employed dito sa Pilipinas,” he said.

(That’s why it is good to hear that the employment figures are improving.)

Latest data from the PSA showed the number of jobless persons aged 15 and above in the country fell to 2.17 million in May 2023 from 2.26 million in April 2023, down by around 89,000 month-on-month.

This is also lower than the 2.93 million unemployed individuals recorded in May 2022, down by about 760,000 persons.

The 2.17 million unemployed in May this year is the third lowest since October 2016’s 2.04 million jobless and 2.05 million unemployed recorded in October 2019.

As a percentage to the total 50.43 million persons in the labor force, the unemployment rate stood at 4.3%, lower than the 4.5% in April 2023 and 6% in May 2022. This means that 43 out of 1,000 individuals had no jobs or livelihood during the period.–LDF, GMA Integrated News