By Katrina Gracia Consebido
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday, Nov. 9 expressed optimism amid the drop in the country’s unemployment rate since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The President vowed to boost the quality of jobs to address the underemployment while continuing to create jobs for Filipinos as it is one of his top priorities in his administration.
“Ever since we started with the economic team, even before I took office, we really concentrated on the creation of jobs,” Marcos said.
“And that’s why it is having the effect now of bringing down our unemployment rate,” he added.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Tuesday, the unemployment rate remains at 5% as of September 2022.
The unemployment rate dropped to 2.5 million or 183,000 lower from the 2.68 million jobless Filipinos recorded in August.
According to the PSA survey, the figure recorded in September was also lower by 1.78 million from the 4.28 million recorded in the same month in 2021.
Marcos emphasized that it is a ‘good sign’, and that the economy is ‘trying very hard to grow.’
“We just have to be able to tolerate the shocks that are coming from abroad. But otherwise, the economy is moving in the right direction,” the President added.
The manufacturing, education, public administration and defense, transportation and real estate sectors have the largest increase in employment.
