NEDA says employment rate declined as more of the youth went back to school

The government on Tuesday downplayed the drop in employment figures, attributing the decline to “policy reforms.”

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon noted the drop in the Philippine employment rate was because more youth were enrolled in schools.

“We are implementing the K to 12, and last year was the first year we implemented the Year 12 and, therefore, it brought ... again, a number of the youth outside the labor market because they are in school,” she said in a press conference in Pasig City.

For the whole of 2017, the unemployment rate was 5.7 percent from 5.5 percent in 2016.

Recent data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed the employment rate at 94.7 percent in January, with the unemployment rate at 5.3 percent.

“While the current unemployment rate has improved compared to previous decades, we are still behind the 5.1 to 5.4 percent target we have set in 2017,” Edillon said.

Edillon noted that many of the unemployed youth returned to school, seizing the education opportunity as a result of the free tuition for state colleges and universities approved by Congress.

“The most frequent answer ... was really because they are studying, they are in school,” she said. —VDS, GMA News