30 workers laid off daily — DOLE

An average of 30 workers lose their jobs daily despite the government’s efforts to curb the country’s high unemployment rate.

Records at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) showed that 2,685 workers were retrenched in the first three months of the year.

Less than one-fourth of displaced workers who sought assistance from the Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs) of DOLE were given employment during the period.

From January to March, PESOs recorded 248,426 job applications from displaced workers and returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) nationwide.

But despite the big number of Filipinos looking for employment, the PESOs still recorded over 288,000 job vacancies during the same period.

Labor officials attributed the country’s high unemployment rate to a mismatch between workers and available jobs.

About five million Filipinos are currently unemployed but labor officials are confident that their number would drop in the coming months.

Labor Undersecretary Manuel Imson said the figure was recorded in April, when unemployment is traditionally high.

Imson gave assurances that DOLE is exerting all efforts to generate one million jobs annually and preserve existing jobs.

President Arroyo, in her annual state of the nation address last July 26, promised to generate up to 10 million jobs over the next six years to keep Filipinos at home, even as she acknowledged that remittances of overseas Filipino workers were a huge boost to the economy. — Mayen Jaymalin