THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is gravely concerned on the continuing dismal job quality and stubbornly high inflation we are experiencing.
The groups said unemployment increased to 4.8% in January from 4.3% in December.
“Dead-ended at double figures for far too long, underemployment further rose to 14.1% in January from 12.6% in December. The situation on the ground is grimmer as poor-quality jobs, eroded incomes, and surging inflation largely remain unaddressed,” stressed the labor group.
“With the holiday ‘Ber’ months over, seasonal workers are out of work or thrown into informal sector precarious work. Those still classified as ‘employed’ are trapped in precarious work which is largely either short-term contractual arrangements, ENDO jobs, low-end gig work, or worse, job-sharing/rotation schemes. These are not decent jobs whose income can sustain the health and productivity of working families. Our minimum wage earners (MWEs) are becoming a class of the permanently poor, struggling every day to eke out their bare necessities, with household spending for food impacted by a minimum wage whose real value decreased by 88 pesos per day this month in NCR (NOMINAL daily minimum wage value: ₱570; REAL daily minimum wage value: ₱482),” said the statement.
This situation, according to TUCP, will become increasingly untenable for low-income families surviving in subsistence conditions if high inflation persists.
Millions of unemployed and underemployed Filipinos and their families can barely satisfy their most basic needs as they make hard choices on expenditures for food, rent, and utilities. The 0.1% decrease in inflation to the still-high 8.6% in February hardly makes a dent as food inflation remains elevated at 11.1%, driven by vegetable inflation at an astoundingly high 33.1%. Further, electricity inflation at 19.5% has a domino effect in bringing up the prices of all other goods and services filtering down to the final consumer.
