DOLE: 800k new grads dropped from labor force due to quarantine

Some 800,000 fresh graduates were not able to join the labor force this year due to quarantine restrictions throughout the country, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Thursday.

According to Maki Pulido’s report on “24 Oras,” the number of employed Filipinos dropped to 33.7 million in April 2020 from 41.7 million in April 2019.

“Sa mga new grads po natin, in a given year, we have about 800,000 of them participating in the labor market,” Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique Rubia Tutay said.

“Pero dahil nagkaroon ng restrictions, nagkaroon ng lockdown, ito po ay nalaglag sila sa tinatawag na labor force natin. Hindi po sila nakapag-participate,” she added.

Selina Trinidad, a fresh psychology graduate, said it has been difficult to land a job amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Most companies [ay] nag-layoff kaya mas mahirap maghanap kasi hindi talaga sila naghahanap ng tao,” she said.

DOLE admitted that it is harder to look for a job at present, adding that it only received around 10,000 job vacancies from companies despite the millions of unemployed Filipinos.

However, the department said fresh graduates can use their tech savvy to their advantage.

“‘Yung mga tinatawag po nating mga digital careers, mga work from home, online sales in terms of wholesale, retail, sila po ang may kakayanan dahil ito ay ginagamitan natin ng teknolohiya,” Tutay said. -Julia Mari Ornedo/MDM, GMA News