Recto to govt: Use P162 B infra budget
to create emergency employment

Sen. Ralph Recto has warned that the supposed rosy statistics on the reduced unemployment rate actually reveal the danger that more and more college graduates are idle, with 35 percent of them without work, a figure similar to high school graduates between the ages 15 and 24 not finding a job after years of trying.

Recto said that while official unemployment rate has been kept to a single-digit, underemployment has risen to 21.8 percent in January 2007 from 21.1 percent a year ago .

Underemployment gives an indication of the quality of jobs being created, he said.

Under the job-counting criteria being observed by the government, watch-your-car-boys, seasonal construction workers, or part-time taxi drivers fall under the classification of underemployed, Recto said.

"This is not a rosy piece of statistic since it shows the economy may not be expanding fast enough to accommodate our young people who need jobs to augment family incomes," the Southern Luzon senator added.

Worse, the senator argued, "the National Capital Region (NCR) hosts the biggest number of unemployed with 12.7 percent, followed by Calabarzon, with 10.4 percent.

The main industrial -commercial hub of the country which traditionally serves as the catchment for skilled and unskilled labor seems to be experiencing an employment slump, he said.

Recto urged the government to embark on an emergency employment program, by using its public works war chest this year, and thus preventing people from resorting to crime in eking out a living .

"There is a budget of P162 billion for refurbishing and maintaining infrastructure and the government must look into recruiting the army of the unemployed to work on this," Recto said.

The senator suggested that government implement a food-for-work program, recruiting people to make much needed repairs of school buildings, and mobilize more people to work on the reforestation and jatropha farming programs that are funded to the extent of P1 billion.

Aside from this, the rural unemployed could be harnessed to work on irrigation projects that are funded by a P7.2 billion budget, the senator pointed out.

Recto said the fine print shows the stark reality of unemployment gnawing at the bosom of the NCR, with 48.8 percent of the unemployed belonging to the 15-24 years age bracket.

This demolishes the belief that a college diploma is a passport to a job. The data, however, show that we have become a nation of tambays with college rings, Recto said.

The fact that we have a large untapped pool of college graduates should prod us to reexamine the quality of graduates tertiary schools are churning out every year. If college training does not match the requirements of the labor market, then remedies must be instituted, he said.

At the same time, the lawmaker stressed, own-account workers still account for a large segment of the employed.

"Own account workers in January 2007 make up for 35.1 percent of the total employed. One in every three has landed a job through sariling-sikap, he said

Included in this category are unpaid family workers, such as those working in family-owned farms.

Thus, a person with a college degree but for lack of, work and while waiting for that call from the job recruitment agency, has to take the familys carabao to pasture is deemed employed, he said.