THE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday said the results of the January 2021 Labor Force Survey is highly encouraging with 1.6 million increase in the country’s labor force, and 1.4 million workers who had regained employment.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the improvement in the employment situation shows that businesses and workers are starting to regain confidence with the safe reopening of the economy.
“We expect a better and more improved employment performance in the coming months with the vaccine being made available and more Filipinos under the priority categories getting inoculated. We call upon all workers and businesses to continue the strict implementation of the minimum public health standards, and occupational safety and health policies,” he said.
Bello stressed that with the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the past week, there is need to instil discipline in adhering to basic MPHS – proper wearing of face mask and face shield, washing of hands, social distancing.
“We cannot afford to go back to the hard lockdown situation and lose our jobs again,” he said. The Task Group on Economic Recovery and the National Employment Recovery Strategy Task Force are doubling their efforts to achieve economic rebound and sustained labor market improvement in the new normal. The country’s recovery goal is to safely reopen the economy, bring back more workers in their jobs, and preserve and generate more employment for the Filipinos here and abroad,” he said.
The improvement in figures being referred to is the January 2021 versus October 2020 where there is an increase in the labor force participation rate at 60.5% (45.2 million) from 58.7% (43.6 million) or an increase of 1.6 million economical active joining the labor force.
Meanwhile employed persons increased by 1.4 million in January 2021 (41.2Million) compared to 39.8 Million in October 2020.
