‘Mass inoculation is the cure to mass unemployment,’ says Recto

MANILA, Philippines — “Joblessness is a result of jablessness,” Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said on Wednesday in response to the report of a record four million Filipinos unemployed in January.

Recto reminded the government that the unemployment problem — now on a 16-year high — was an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the mass vaccination program was the “cure.”

“The contagion of unemployment is a brutal side effect of this virus. Mass inoculation is the cure to mass unemployment,” he said in a statement, adding: “Any [aid] is but a temporary pain killer that will lessen the symptoms a bit, but will not cure the cause.” Recto said that for it to show any tangible effect, opening up the economy should be accompanied by the establishment of more vaccination sites.

Disappointed

He also warned that the monsoon season due in two to three months could complicate the inoculation program, with more COVID-19 jabs expected to be delivered and needing to be transported to sites nationwide.

“We should ramp up vaccination before the start of the rainy season, when typhoons and floods and the power and transportation disruption they cause can wreak havoc on vaccine rollouts,” he said.

In a separate statement, Sen. Risa Hontiveros expressed disappointment over the latest report on joblessness, saying it did not look any better than the situation in October 2020.

While economic managers are looking at reopening the economy by relaxing quarantine protocols, this could come at the cost of higher COVID-19 cases, Hontiveros said.

“Instead of relying on people to confidently rush in to consume and invest when the economy is reopened, we need to ensure ‘safety first’ and support ‘low-contact high-potential sectors’ to get us out of this pit,” the senator said.

Depressing data

The two senators made the remarks after the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that its latest labor force survey (LFS) showed that the unemployment rate worsened to 8.7 percent in January from 5.3 percent a year ago.

Dennis Mapa, the national statistician, said the jobless rate was the highest since 2005 when the government adopted its current employment metrics.

The actual number of jobless Filipinos rose to 4 million from 2.4 million during the same month in 2020.

January’s unemployment rate matched the 8.7 percent in October last year, but the number of people without jobs was lower—3.8 million—a quarter ago.

In January, the number of Filipinos who joined the labor market or those economically active at age 15 and above rose to 45.2 million from 43.6 million a quarter ago and 44.9 million a year ago.

But underemployment among workers who want to earn more money worsened in January to 16 percent or 6.6 million Filipinos from 14.4 percent (5.7 million individuals) a quarter ago and 14.8 percent (6.3 million) a year ago.

The country’s economic managers tried to put a positive spin on the report, saying “the results of the January LFS are promising as it tells us that we are on track to getting back most of the jobs we have lost due to COVID-19 and the quarantines.”

The economic team said 269,000 jobs were restored in Metro Manila as the jobless rate fell to 8.8 percent in January from 12.4 percent in October, but joblessness outside Metro Manila rose to 8.7 percent at the start of 2020 from 8.2 percent a quarter ago.