(Eagle News) — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that there were over 69,000 Filipinos who lost their jobs during the COVID-29 pandemic.
These Filipinos were employed by at lease 2,068 firms which were affected by the virus crisis, the chief of the Department of Labor and Employment said,
Bello made this statement during a Laging Handa press briefing on June 10, to make the clarification on the number of 17.3 million unemployed Filipinos given by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
He said that this was not the “actual” number.
“Unang-una, klaruhin natin po iyong 17.3 million. Eh hindi actual iyan kasi kung tutuusin ang actual number of unemployed ay umaabot lamang po sa 69,000 at ang mga nagsabi na nagsara sila ay 2,068 companies o employers. Iyon pong 7.3 million ay survey pa lang po iyan, hindi pa po iyan actual o factual,” Bello said.
“So ang aming tinitingnan ngayon dito Sec. Martin ay iyong number of total establishment na nagsara – this is 2,068 involving 69,022 workers,” he stressed.
-PSA data says unemployment rate rose to 17.7% in April-
Bello is referring to a survey by the PSA that said that the unemployment rate for April was at 17.7 percent which translates to 7.3 million Filipinos.
In the PSA report released on June 5, it said that the “Unemployment rate rose to 17.7 percent accounting to 7.3 million unemployed Filipinos in the labor force in April 2020.”
“This is a record high in the unemployment rate reflecting the effects of Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) economic shutdown to the Philippine labor market. Unemployment rate in January 2020 was 5.3 percent while in April 2019, it was recorded at 5.1 percent,” the PSA added.
(Eagle News Service)
