MikeLigalig.com

By Michelle V. Remo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

The World Bank said the number of unemployed and underemployed Filipinos may jump to 12.4 million by 2016 even if the economy would be able to sustain its current growth pace.

Last year, the country’s unemployed and underemployed stood at 10 million, with the latter accounting for 7 million.

According to the World Bank, the Philippines needs to sustain a growth pace of at least 7 percent to accelerate job creation. In the first semester, the economy grew by 7.6 percent from year-ago level.

However, the World Bank said maintaining a rapid pace of growth alone would not be sufficient to prevent the rise in the number of unemployed and underemployed Filipinos.

This, it said, was because the rate of increase in jobs created would be outpaced by the rise in the number of new entrants to the labor force.

Economic growth should come along with measures that will directly create high-quality jobs to reduce unemployment and underemployment, it said.