Commision on Population and Development | FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — As the number of employable Filipinos continues to increase, the national government should make available more quality jobs to boost the country’s socio-economic development.
This was the pitch of the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) as its officer-in-charge, Executive Director Lolito Tacardon, stressed the importance of amply utilizing the substantial quantity of workers in the country today.
Citing the Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2020 Census of Population and Housing, the Popcom official said that 69.4 million Filipinos, or more than half of the total 109 million population that year, were within the working age range of 15 to 64 years old.
“To fully tap this significant quantity of workers, the national government needs to provide steady streams of quality jobs, while capacitating them appropriately so that they can acquire needed skills by industries,” he said Wednesday at the start of the Population and Development (Popdev) Week.
Tacardon pointed out that providing more quality jobs to Filipinos should be among the priorities of the government. Otherwise, he said, it might be a missed opportunity “to hasten the country’s socio-economic growth to further improve the quality of life of every Filipino.”
“We call on the present administration to exert supplementary efforts in investing in the nation’s human and physical capital by channeling resources on health, education, infrastructure and technology, which can help our country further boost productivity,” Tacardon said.
Aside from the national government, Tacardon likewise urged local leaders and the private sector to establish sound policies and give quality labor programs that would open more jobs to potential Filipino workers.
He cited positions made by the United Nations on inclusive employment, underscoring the need to make use of not just women and the youth, but also disabled people, immigrants, and the elderly.
“Now is the best time to fully utilize our human resources. We need to ensure that there are available jobs out there. We also need to capacitate our workers, so that they can be more productive members of society. This demographic opportunity can be a key factor to achieve the country’s higher socio-economic objectives. It is rare, and we cannot afford to miss it,” Tacardon said.
The Popcom official then explained that the rising number of employable Filipinos is caused by nationwide efforts to decrease levels of mortality and fertility.
“Since couples and individuals have effectively limited and spaced the number of their children in previous decades, the young base of the population has declined, and those in the working-age gradually increased,” he said.
Popcom earlier noted that while global population has breached 8 billion, the Philippines’ total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped compared to past years.
It pointed out that the TFR of Filipino women aged 15 to 49 this year is at 1.9 children, which reflects a notable dip from the 2.7 children in 2017.