Job losses due to corruption

The local construction industry is one of the major sub-sectors of key economic indicators that are regularly monitored by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

In its monthly report, the PSA noted the construction industry contributed the highest number of job losses. From the latest Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the PSA, around 147,000 construction workers swelled the ranks of unemployed Filipinos nationwide in one month this year.

Based from the monthly LFS monitoring, the unemployment rate in July this year went up to 5.3 percent from 4.1 percent last April. By year-on-year comparison, the unemployment rate is higher than the 4.7 percent recorded in July 2024. In terms of levels, the number of unemployed increased to 2.59 million individuals who got retrenched or were rendered jobless for one reason or another.

Offhand, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Bienvenido “Benny” Laguesma explains the “seasonality of jobs” is largely influenced by the country’s wet and dry weather system. Laguesma cited in particular the first three to four typhoons that visited the Philippines early this year, which resulted in massive flooding in various parts of the country. Partly, he noted, these largely caused displacement of workers in the construction and agriculture sub-sector.

Apart from the extreme weather disturbances, Laguesma rued, the job losses could be partly caused by the reported “ghost” or nonexistent flood control projects. No less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) figured much of the P545 billion of the Congress-approved 2025 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) went into alleged “ghost” flood control projects. Amid the continuing discoveries of more “ghost” flood control projects all over the country, Laguesma is getting ahead of the potential “challenge” that it places on the employment situation for the rest of the year.