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While walking inside the mall with my friends last labor day, we saw a long line of people vying for a chance to have a job in a company sponsored job fair. This made me realize how severe the unemployment is on the country.
According to Labor Secretary Mariano Roque, more than 25, 000 participated on the government’s job fair last labor day, this does not include the thousands more who participated in other job fairs across the country. With thousand of Filipinos unemployed, what has the government been doing?
For the past months, unemployment has had risen compared to the other years in the country. It may be because of the global financial crisis we’ve been hearing about for the past year. This crisis had affected millions of workers around the world, hitting the US and other economic superpowers the most.
In the Philippines, the government says that we are not much affected because of the strict countermeasures they have been doing these past few months. But is this really true?
I remembered a lecture by our Economics professor, Solita Monsod, who told us that the real reason why we are not much affected by the global economic crunch is because we have a very slow economic performance in terms of the other countries. You can look at it in a positive and a negative way. Positive because the slowness in our economic growth had saved us from the large impact of the financial crisis; Negative because of all the developing countries in the world, we are ranked as one of the slowest to develop.
Regarding the unemployment situation in the country, I don’t think the government is serious about saving our jobless Filipinos. One thing is that the government keeps exporting our labor force instead of giving them proper employment that they deserve. In fact, most unemployed workers due to the financial crisis are the foreign workers around the world, and with the Philippines as having one of the most outsourcing workers, we are most likely to be hit hard.
It is not a solution to find jobs outside the country because if crises like the one we’ve been through worsens, then we will be in for the worst since the government’s main income generating mechanism is the outsourcing of the labor force. I believe that the government should think about focusing on local investments and employment generating prospects instead of relying on the remittance of the OFWs.
According to Labor Secretary Mariano Roque, more than 25, 000 participated on the government’s job fair last labor day, this does not include the thousands more who participated in other job fairs across the country. With thousand of Filipinos unemployed, what has the government been doing?
For the past months, unemployment has had risen compared to the other years in the country. It may be because of the global financial crisis we’ve been hearing about for the past year. This crisis had affected millions of workers around the world, hitting the US and other economic superpowers the most.
In the Philippines, the government says that we are not much affected because of the strict countermeasures they have been doing these past few months. But is this really true?
I remembered a lecture by our Economics professor, Solita Monsod, who told us that the real reason why we are not much affected by the global economic crunch is because we have a very slow economic performance in terms of the other countries. You can look at it in a positive and a negative way. Positive because the slowness in our economic growth had saved us from the large impact of the financial crisis; Negative because of all the developing countries in the world, we are ranked as one of the slowest to develop.
Regarding the unemployment situation in the country, I don’t think the government is serious about saving our jobless Filipinos. One thing is that the government keeps exporting our labor force instead of giving them proper employment that they deserve. In fact, most unemployed workers due to the financial crisis are the foreign workers around the world, and with the Philippines as having one of the most outsourcing workers, we are most likely to be hit hard.
It is not a solution to find jobs outside the country because if crises like the one we’ve been through worsens, then we will be in for the worst since the government’s main income generating mechanism is the outsourcing of the labor force. I believe that the government should think about focusing on local investments and employment generating prospects instead of relying on the remittance of the OFWs.
Another thing to note about in this economic crisis is how the government mitigates the financial sector and save its local businesses. We’ve been hearing lately that local businesses and pre need companies are shutting down, which contributes to the uneasiness of the Filipinos to spend their money. One solution they did was to provide stimulus package just like the countries around the world. This act may seem commendable as it would help increase the financial spending in the country, but how many will be saved if the stimulus package is less than 1% of our GDP? According to Prof. Monsod, compared to the billions of dollars being spent on other countries stimulus package, we only allocate a trickle compared to them. Not to mention the slowness in the passage of the resolution when we need it most last January when the economic slowdown started. (Can’t remember when it was passed, I think it was March)
This posts a question: is the government really serious in saving the country and its people from the torrents of the global financial crisis or will it turn a blind eye to what is really happening ?
This posts a question: is the government really serious in saving the country and its people from the torrents of the global financial crisis or will it turn a blind eye to what is really happening ?
4 comments:
Recessions do not only bring about tough times financially. Sadly, they set men against men and raise moral issues that most of us would rather not have to consider.
I' ve been through a lot of these job fairs lately and I've seen countless of people applying for a jobs not sited for them. Out of 1000 applicants, there are only about 50-100 hired. I think the government should find jobs that are more suitable for the masses.
I agree with JobSearchNinja. In these troubled times, people woud do any job just to support their own family, even through any means necessary.
Stimulus package from the Philippine government to help troubled businesses? sana ung maliit na amount eh makarating ng buo sa mga negosyong tunay na nangangailangan and hindi maligaw sa bulsa ng kung sino..
with regard the problem of rising unemployment, the bigger problem that i see is that most people depend on the government or businesses to find or provide a job for them. People are trained to study to get a good job and high paying job... students are not or are seldom encouraged to study in order that someday they may become entrepreneurs of their own businesses and creators of jobs for others. imagine that if we would have more entrepreneurs, how much more jobs would be created? would we not be more self reliant and less dependent on foreigner and foreign investments? Filipinos are brilliant and creative people. Starting a business is not easy but everyone has to start somewhere. If others could do it, why could we not? are we of a lesser class of people? truly not! it is still not too late. Opportunities are still out there waiting to be notice and acted upon. i hope that the government would put more effort also in encouraging and helping young entrepreneurs who would not join and contribute further to the rising unemployment rate but instead contribute to provide jobs, lower unemployement, and make proud to the world the talents and capabilities of the Filipinos! Kaya natin to!
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