She may be the most criticized Chief Executive by the country’s workers, but President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was able to deliver the millions of jobs she promised during her nine-year stint in office.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) disclosed this on Thursday, adding that over eight million jobs were generated under the Arroyo administration.
And as President Arroyo steps down after ending her term on June 30, she will leave some 50,000 job vacancies for government rank and file, on top of the 4,301 vacant positions for the management and executive levels, Malacañang had earlier reported.
“The annual averages of the quarterly Labor Force Survey (LFS) from 2001 to 2009 showed that the total employment generated during this 9-year period was over 8 million, indicating that the Arroyo administration generated an average of 0.890 million jobs each year since 2001,’’ said Labor Acting Secretary Romeo Lagman.
“This was double of the less than half a million jobs generated during the previous administrations,’’ he added.
Lagman’s reaction was an offshoot to the latest survey released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) indicating a 5 percent rise in the country's unemployment rate, from 7.5 percent in 2009 to 8.0 in April 2010.
The NSO had affirmed that the 5 percent increase does not make any significant dent, said Lagman.
He said that despite the devastating effects of the El Niño, the country has managed to pull off and registered an increase, achieving a robust growth in the services and industry sectors, and a marked improvement in the number of persons engaged in full time jobs.
As of April this year, he said the number of employed persons increased by 1.2 percent reaching 35.411 million from 34.997 million a year ago.
The number of persons in full-time employment also rose by 9.5 percent (+1.892 million) while persons in part-time employment fell by 9.6 percent (-1.376 million), allowing an increase in the mean hours of work from 39.8 to 41.2 over the period.
These significant gains were seen in the services sector, which expanded 4.7 percent (+822, 000), and the industry sector which grew by 7.8% (+396, 000).
Employment growth in the two sectors contributed to the 7.3 percent economic growth achieved during this year’s first quarter, said Lagman.
The major contributors were wholesale and retail trade (+202,000), public administration and defense, compulsory social security (+163,000), and transport, storage and communications (+113,000) for the services sector; and manufacturing (+221,000), construction (+120,000), mining and quarrying (+46,000), and electricity, gas and water (+9,000) for the industry sector.
Improvements were also noted in the number of workers who want to work longer or the underemployed – as this dropped considerably by 17.8 percent, from 7.1 million in January to 6.3 million in April this year.
“By looking at these figures, hindi natin pwedeng sabihin na walang dent sa Arroyo administration (We cannot say there was no dent). Hindi pa natin naisama dito ang (we have not yet included) gains sa overseas employment, which obviously are bigger over the last few years,’’ stressed Lagman.
He lamented, however, that the gains were offset by a large decline in agricultural employment particularly in Regions 2 (Cagayan Valley), 6 ((Western Visayas), 8 (Eastern Visayas), 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula), 11 (Davao), 12 (Central Mindanao), and Caraga.
“Employment in these regions fell due to the impact of the severe drought brought about by the El Nino phenomenon.’’
The official admitted that unemployment remains one of government’s biggest challenges even as efforts for job generation, as were being done by the Arroyo administration, are doubled.
Lagman also acknowledged that the wage issue is a key concern that should be urgently addressed as this will advance the quality of employment in the country.