.... “If you look at the administration, they’ve played up on that very well. I think this administration has a number of things that they’re moving forward with that are very supportive of economic and inclusive growth,” [Jeff Johnson, ILO country director for the Philippines] added.
Johnson also said, however, that many problems remained in the labor sector, like the high rate of vulnerable employment in the country.
“Vulnerable employment in the Philippines stands at 40.2 percent and it’s going down very slowly. Those workers are own-account workers or unpaid family workers, small-scale farmers, peasant farmers, petty traders or those who work in food stalls,” Johnson said.
“Those workers lack social protection, no social security mechanism in place, and they probably have no PhilHealth. They have very little protection for their occupational safety and in health regulations, and clearly no collective bargaining,” he said.
According to the ILO’s Asia-Pacific Labor Market Update that was released last week, “some progress” in employment creation in the Philippines “was unable to prevent” a higher unemployment of 7.1 percent.”
“The economy struggled to generate sufficient jobs to match its expanding labor force of nearly one million new labor market entrants in the last year,” the ILO report said.
