Pimentel urges DOLE, PSA to craft 'new method' to measure unemployment rate

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) have been urged to craft a new methodology in reporting the country’s unemployment rate as Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III flagged what he called “distorted” figures reported in the last State of the Nation Address (SONA).

During the Senate plenary deliberations on DOLE’s proposed 2024 budget, Pimentel raised anew the issue of supposed inaccurate unemployment rate reported by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in his 2023 SONA.

“Siguro (maybe) the DOLE and PSA can sit down to define, with the help of the [Institute for Labor Studies], to define who is an unemployed person, when is a person employed. Because I think it’s unfair and it distorts our data if a person who received an amount equivalent to minimum wage for seven to 10 days in a year and then he is considered, is reported to having been employed,” Pimentel pointed out.  

“Unfair to him, unfair to policy makers, and unfair to the President to his announcing this, using this figure in his official statements,” he added.

In his speech back in July, Marcos said the employment rate as of May 2023 rose to 95.7 percent and the underemployed figure is at 11.7 percent.

Pimentel explained that the 95.7 percent rate should mean full employment.

“That’s far from reality,” Pimentel previously said.

“Masayadong mataas e…Kung tingnan natin ang figure na binigay ni Presidente sa employment rate natin practically we have full employment…I do not believe it cause I could see unemployment all around us,” he added.

Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, who defends the budget of the DOLE, explained that the DOLE and the PSA are simply using the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) definition of employment.

According to Legarda, the PSA conducts the monthly survey on employment and they include those with temporary jobs, including those employed under DOLE’s TUPAD program, in their data.

The DOLE and the PSA then come up with an annual average employment rate.

“That is a distorted figure, Mr. President. That is my opinion,” Pimentel said.

Legarda agreed with Pimentel and followed the latter’s call to improve the government’s methodology in measuring unemployment in the country.

“Please advise us how it can be better because I agree with you. If it’s a temporary employment based on cash for work of 10, 20 up to 30 days, although it’s done monthly, and we can get the annual average, we want to be more accurate and be more specific,” Legarda said.

“If there’s a way to do it better-- PSA, DOLE and the Senate on how to be more precise in measuring employment and underemployment. We will be so happy to improve the methodology on how to measure our employment because we don’t want to fool ourselves,” she added.  —VAL, GMA Integrated News