Palace finding ways to address joblessness —Panelo

Malacañang on Sunday said it is looking at ways to address joblessness which a recent Social Weather Stations survey put at 22 percent.

"The Palace is seriously looking at the Third Quarter 2018 survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showing adult joblessness at 22 percent and is continuously finding ways to improve the local employment situation," presidential spokesperson and chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

Around 9.8 million adult Filipinos—or 22 percent of respondents—were jobless in the third quarter of 2018 according to a survey conducted by the SWS from September 15 to 23.

This is a 2.3-point increase from the second quarter's 19.7 percent or around 8.6 million adults, found in SWS' June 2018 survey.

Panelo said the Ease of Doing Business Act (Republic Act No. 11032) was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte recently "to streamline business processes and reduce processing time in all government agencies to make the country more conducive to investments thereby creating more and better jobs for our people."

He added that the government is developing human resources, and is confident that recently appointed Isidro Lapeña, who now heads the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority as director-general, "can contribute in our employment targets by improving industry-relevant competencies of our youth, especially unutilized, unemployed, and underemployed school dropouts, and increase their opportunities for work experience through skills training."

Lapeña was former Bureau of Customs chief.

Panelo gave the assurance that the Duterte administration will continue working to bring down the unemployment rate.

"Indeed, there will be no let-up in our efforts to bring down the unemployment rate and increase labor participation among our youth and women," he said. —KG, GMA News