GMA disputes results of SWS unemployment survey

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga, Philippines  – President Arroyo and her labor chief disputed the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing the national unemployment rate at 27.9 percent, saying job opportunities remain plentiful, even abroad.

President Arroyo told the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Pampanga chapter at the Holiday Inn here that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration is processing 3,000 jobs a day as new job markets continue to open up in other countries.

“There are job opportunities,” she said.

“Therefore we want to have our workers find higher paying jobs or avail of reintegration services and livelihood assistance, should any expatriate workers return to the Philippines or for the export workers who get retrenched,” she said.

The President said the government is ensuring that adequate support is provided to displaced workers to keep them competitive.

The SWS survey covered the period Nov. 28 to Dec.1, 2008.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, for his part, dismissed the SWS survey as “accurate only for questions with dichotomous responses like yes or no” unlike the “more scientific” Labor Force Survey done by the National Statistics Office.

Roque noted that the Labor Force Survey has 50,000 household samples nationwide compared with only 1,200 samples of the SWS which were drawn from the Commission on Elections’ list of voters.

He said the voters’ list, if used as basis for surveys, “may not be of equal probability, hence does not capture adequate changes in national unemployment situation.”

Roque said the domestic unemployment figure is only 39,000 as of last week.

Of the figure, 12,000 have been assisted by the government in finding replacement jobs.

Meanwhile, the labor department has sent a team to South Korea to discuss with the country’s education officials the possibility of hiring Filipino teachers.

Roque said the DOLE team discussed with Korean Ministry of Education officials the prospects of hiring Filipino English teachers as well as other professional workers in the Incheon Free Export Zone. – Marvin Sy and Mayen Jaymalin