Filipinos remain wary of wage, skills gaps this year
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The increasing wage and skills gaps in the country remains to be the top concern of Filipino workers and labor groups this 2023.
According to Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO) Secretary General Josua Mata, the current administration should boost its public employment program to help workers get through the COVID-19 pandemic, skyrocketing inflation, and a possible recession.
He added that the labor department should push green jobs in the renewable energy sector and rehabilitation of coastal areas where workers are badly needed to ease the effects of climate change.
Federation of Free Workers (FFW) Vice President Julius Cainglet also urged the government to review its regional wage-setting mechanism.
“The current wages are not enough to deal with inflation, and workers are not getting an adequate slice of the pie to enjoy the fruits of their labor,” he said by telephone.
China Banking Corp. Chief Economist Domini Velasques, meanwhile, said that the government should prioritize arming its workforce with skills in new technologies to improve job quality.
At the same time, Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said that students should also be trained in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to make the Philippine workforce more regionally competitive.
Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show the country’s unemployment rate eased to 4.2% in November, the lowest in over 17 years. However, job quality deteriorated as underemployment rose from to 14.4% in the same month from 14.2% in October.
