MANILA, Philippines – While the Philippines is enjoying one of the lowest unemployment rates in decades, most of the new jobs Filipinos have are low-paying, think tank IBON Foundation found.

The Philippine Statistics Authority on Wednesday, August 7, reported that the unemployment rate improved to 3.1% in June 2024, the second lowest unemployment rate since April 2005. This is equivalent to around 1.62 million Filipinos.

IBON Foundation said the quality of jobs also appears to be improving according to usual indicators, such as the 2 million increase in the number of wage-and-salary workers from the same period in 2023. There are also 3 million more full-time workers, while part-time workers fell by 1.5 million.

However, the research group noted that 1.3 million, or an overwhelming 89% of the net increase in the number of employed Filipinos, were in sectors paying below the national average daily basic pay (ADBP).

From June 2023 to 2024, the construction sector had the highest increase in jobs, growing by 938,000 to 5.77 million.

Next came increases in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles at 527,000, accommodation and food service activities at 396,000, manufacturing at 353,000, and transportation and storage at 323,000.

The ADBP of a construction worker is P540, P470 for wholesale and retail trade, P486 for accommodation and food service, and P546 for manufacturing.

IBON said these were all far below the national ADBP of P616. These were only higher than in “other service activities” at P351, and agriculture at P344.

The think tank also noted that none of these salaries reached even half of IBON’s family living wage estimate in Metro Manila amounting to P1,207 daily in July 2024. The family living wage is a measure of how much a family of five needs in order to live decently.

“It is no wonder that many Filipino families have a hard time keeping up with the rising cost of living,” IBON Foundation said. “This lack of decent pay amid high prices is pushing more Filipinos into hunger and poverty.”

In July, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in the National Capital Region increased the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila by P35, bringing it up to P645 in non-agriculture sectors. The capital region traditionally has the highest minimum wages in the country.

In September 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act, which sought to solve various challenges in the labor sector, such as low quality jobs, skills mismatch, and underemployment.

While the employment situation improves, higher underemployment indicates that Filipinos may believe their jobs are not enough to sustain them.

Discussions on a legislated across-the-board minimum wage increase remain pending in Congress. The proposed amounts range from P100 to P750. – Rappler.com