Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto expressed optimism over the 1.45 million new jobs created for Filipinos in August 2024, anticipating even more employment opportunities as inflation drops to a four-year low and the holiday season approaches.
“I am very glad of the back-to-back good news. Asahan po natin na mas maraming trabaho ang magbubukas para sa ating mga kababayan dahil sa patuloy na pagbaba ng inflation rate na magpapalakas sa kita ng ating mga negosyo at bawat pamilya. At the same time, we expect more economic opportunities to be created, especially in the wholesale and retail trade sectors, as the holiday season nears and shopping peaks,” he said.
“The latest monetary policy easing due to the deceleration of inflation will also encourage further growth in consumption and investment that translate to more quality employment for Filipinos. More and better jobs will allow Filipino families to spend more, boosting our economy,” he added.
The country’s labor market remained strong in August 2024, with the unemployment rate decreasing to 4.0% from 4.7% in July 2024 and 4.4% recorded in August 2023.
With this, the total number of employed Filipinos as of August 2024 now stands at 49.2 million, higher than 47.7 million in July 2024 and 48.1 million in August 2023.
This translates to an additional 1.45 million new jobs for Filipinos on a month-on-month basis or 1.08 million when compared to the previous year.
The underemployment rate likewise recorded a notable improvement, dropping to 11.2% in August 2024 from 12.1% in the previous month and 11.7% in August 2023.
The wholesale and retail trade sectors were the biggest employment drivers in August 2024, adding 1.15 million more workers to the labor force from the previous month.
Other sources of job growth include public administration and defense; compulsory social security (351,000); education (209,000); transportation and storage (207,000); and other service activities (172,000).
Wage and salary workers also continued to make up the largest share of employed persons in the country at 62.4% in August 2024.
This indicates an expanding middle class as more and more Filipinos are engaged in formal and stable jobs.
Among wage and salary workers, those employed in private establishments remained to have the highest share of 76.4%, while the public sector share was just 16.2%.
The much-anticipated enactment of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) bill is expected to attract more capital-intensive investments into the country and generate quality jobs, especially in higher value-added sectors like BPO, IT, construction, accounting, and healthcare, among others.
Moreover, the government is fast-tracking the implementation of the Build, Better, More program and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code to create more opportunities for highly technical jobs such as engineering, architecture, and consultancy, among others.
The Finance Chief also emphasized ensuring the swift implementation of the government’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) roadmap and strategy to upskill the Filipino workforce and cultivate a new generation of research scientists, engineers, as well as research and development innovators.
For its part, the DOF will ramp up its revenue collection efforts to raise more resources and provide more funds for education, upskilling and worker training, health care, and other human capital development programs that will improve the preparedness of Filipinos for quality job opportunities.
