(FILE) Job seekers check out the listings at a career expo in Mandaluyong City before the pandemic.
MANILA, Philippines – Placing the entire country under Alert Level 1 will allow more Filipinos to find work, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua suggested Thursday, noting that increased mobility and relaxed restrictions have led to significant employment creation since the economy reopened in February.
“As we contained the spread of the Omicron variant and ramped up the vaccination program, we were able to revert to alert level 2 in the National Capital Region and other economic centers starting February 2022. This allowed more Filipinos to rejoin the labor force,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Chua in a statement.
“We aim to shift the entire country to alert level 1 to enable even more Filipinos to find work,” he added.
Citing data from Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), NEDA noted the country’s unemployment rate remained at 6.4 percent in February, the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.
The labor force participation rate improved from 60.5 percent in January to 63.8 percent in February, resulting in a net employment creation of 2.5 million over the same period. This increases the country’s employment to 2.9 million people, up from the pre-pandemic level.
The quality of jobs has improved as well, NEDA said, as shown by the drop in the underemployment rate from 14.9 to 14.0 percent.
As of April 1, almost 79 percent of the economy has been placed on alert level 1. However, NEDA also warned that the country would not enjoy the maximum benefits of moving to alert level 1 unless in-person classes are resumed.
“To maximize the shift to alert level 1, we reiterate the need for the full and urgent resumption of face-to-face classes. This will allow one-fourth of the parents who stay at home supporting their children during online classes to work,” he said.
“This is crucial in light of the temporary inflationary pressures we are experiencing due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he added.
Metro Manila and nearly 200 areas are placed under Alert Level 1 from April 1 to 15.–– Jericho Zafra, INQUIRER.net intern