The government is aiming to create 800,000 jobs and recover those lost due to the pandemic by the next quarter as the National Capital Region (NCR) and 38 other areas deescalate to Alert Level 1 on March 1.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez in a text message to reporters said with the first batch of deescalation covering
NCR and key cities and provinces, “we can hit about 500,000 (jobs) with all parts of the economy functioning.”
When asked if the country is yet to recover the jobs lost due to the new coronavirus disease 2019, Lopez said “we are getting close to it.”
“I am basing (this) on hitting pre- pandemic unemployment rate of 5 percent which was our average before. Thus we can expect to generate 800,00 more jobs over time for the entire country once we remove the balance restrictions,” Lopez said.
Meanwhile, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines said its “Reform. Rebound.
Recover: One Million Jobs for 2021” project has contributed and created an estimated or over 600,000 jobs from June to December 2021 from the information technology and business process management industry.
This figure is on top of the over 900,000 for 2021 generated by the National Economic Recovery Strategy, a private sector-government initiative to create a million jobs. These are in the construction, manufacturing particularly semiconductors and electronics), tourism, the hospitality industry, and export industries.
“Although the project did not reach the targeted jobs created for 2021 due to the prevailing quarantine and mobility restrictions on goods and people, the partnership will continue this year and ECOP reiterates its commitment to continue working on creating, saving, and transforming jobs for 2022,” Ortiz-Luis said.
The country’s employment rate reached its highest for the pandemic period, at 93.5 percent or equivalent to 45.5 million employed persons with an increase of 1.7 million employed persons observed month-on-month, between October and November
At the group’s general membership meeting recently, Health Undersecretary
Maria Rosario Singh Vergeire said standards on how offices or businesses are run need to be revamped are the country eases back to the new normal.
Vergeire said all commercial and industrial establishments, project sites, and other places where work is being undertaken indoors have been recommended to maximize natural ventilation through the use of doors, windows, and other openings if possible and safe to do so.
She also enumerated the following measures in the physical work environment: Adjusting alternative work arrangements, provision of (adequate) sick leaves, and health referral mechanisms for the psychosocial aspect. – Irma Isip
