IBON: Millions of jobless Filipinos are possibly excluded in gov’t statistics

INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. should stop “cherry picking” data to put itself in a good light, a socio-economic group pleaded on Thursday.

IBON Foundation Executive Director Sonny Africa asked government to be more honest about its statistics and to “look at the whole picture.”

“We have no reason to doubt the integrity of the statistical system,” Africa first told INQUIRER.net.

“For us, the important thing is [to] read the statistics based on what they’re actually saying, not what we want them to say. And not find good news where there is no good news,” he emphasized.

His remarks are in response to the successive economic gains that government announced.

This list includes reduced unemployment rate in November last year and the slowing down of inflation in December of the same year.

Jobless growth

IBON Foundation said the report on the sliding of unemployment rate to 3.6 percent from 4.2 percent in October ignored the number of discouraged jobless Filipino.

It also disregarded many persons who have stopped looking for work altogether, the group said.

IBON explained people who have given up on searching for jobs were dropped from being counted as part of the labor force.

“Between November 2022 and November 2023, the number of employed fell by 70,000 to 49.64 million,” the organization revealed in a statement on Wednesday.

“This is despite the number of working age Filipinos, or a population 15 years old and above, growing by 1.2 million, to 78.1 million from 76.9 million,” it observed.

“With no additional work to be found, the labor force shrank by 413,000 and those classified as not in the labor force bloated by a huge 1.6 million,” the organization lamented.

Africa said these numbers could be a warning sign that employment actually stagnated in the past year, despite hyped economic growth.

“The only conclusion you can draw is that maaaring milyung-milyong Pilipino na walang trabaho ang hindi binibilang ng statistika,” he suspected.

(The only conclusion you can draw is that it’s possible that millions of jobless Filipinos are not being counted by the statistics.)

“Tama naman na by the methodology,” Africa talked about his review.

(It’s correct in terms of methodology.)

“Bumaba yung bilang ng percentage ng unemployed, pero it’s because napakaraming Pilipino (ang) hindi na naghahanap ng trabaho… dahil wala na silang makitang trabaho,” he explained.

(The percentage of the unemployed decreased, but it’s because there are too many Filipinos who have stopped looking for work… because there’s no work to be found.)

Previously, Senator Joel Villanueva commended the country’s decreased unemployment rate, indicating Philippines’ economy has “fully recovered.”

Not as good

Africa likewise mentioned government’s “taming” of the inflation rate is not something to celebrate.

“Slowing inflation does not mean that things are getting any cheaper. It just means that things are not getting as expensive as fast as before,” he explained.

He emphasized prices of goods remain high.

Earlier, Philippine Statistics Authority reported the country’s inflation rate slowed to 3.9 percent in December last year.

This figure was down from a 14-year high of 8.7 percent in January 2023.

While government officials lauded the development, Africa said government should, instead, be honest.

He believes authorities should reveal that overall, inflation in 2023 eroded people’s wages, being at its highest rate in 14 years.

“Covering up the problem not only serves to reinforce and maintain that problem because… we’re not finding solutions, because we deny that it’s a problem (to begin with),” he stressed.

“The numbers are all there to show – things aren’t as good as they’re meant to be,” the IBON Foundation executive director concluded.