Balisacan: Employment rate back to pre-pandemic levels by 2024

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said Tuesday that the unemployment rate in the country will go down to pre-pandemic levels by 2024.

During the Senate finance committee's first briefing on the national expenditure program (NEP) based on next year's  P5.628-trillion national budget, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva asked about the country's employment projections.

In his presentation, Villanueva cited the 5.3% actual unemployment rate in 2018 and 5.1%  in 2019.

It rose to 10.3% in 2020, and dipped slightly to 7.8% in 2021.

Based on the Development Budget Coordination Committee's (DBCC) data, the projected unemployment rate is 5.1 to 6.5% in 2022; 5.7 to 6.8% in 2023; 5.0 to 5.3% in 2024; and 5.5 to 5.8% in 2025.

"We have made an exercise already on that. Here, for 2023, we are expecting unemployment to reach 5.7 to 6.8 (percent). By 2024, 5.0 to 5.3 (percent)," Balisacan said.

Villanueva asked Balisacan if the government is seeing unemployment rate go back to the pre-pandemic level by 2024, to which the NEDA chief answered in the affirmative.

For 2023, Balisacan said they are expecting more Filipinos, particularly those who will finish the K to 12 program, to join the labor force.

"Next year, we don't expect a sharp decline in unemployment but still the number of additional jobs created would be quite significant especially if we continue the progress in opening up the economy," he said.

Balisacan said an example of opening up the economy is the optional wearing of face mask outdoors, adding that he expects the policy will include indoor spaces provided that sufficient health protocols are in place.

"With those, I think that will spur more developments, more economic activities particularly among small and medium enterprises. So I'm quite upbeat that insofar as the employment situation is concerned for the near term that there will be quite significant improvement even given the inflation and the uptick in the interest rates," he said. —LBG, GMA News