Joblessness among adult Filipinos is something that the government is taking seriously as the country continues to grapple with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Monday.

DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III made this statement after the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released its July 3-6 National Mobile Phone Survey which showed that adult joblessness hit a record high 45.5 percent in July 2020 due to restrictions imposed to contain the Covid-19 epidemic.

“Reeling from the very serious impact of the global pandemic, it is no surprise that the crisis has its highest toll on jobs and employment. We understand that the global pandemic has virtually wiped out the employment gains in the last decade. This is something that seriously concerns us,” Bello said.

While acknowledging the impact of health crisis on jobs and employment, Bello clarified that joblessness and unemployment are “entirely” two different matters.

“A job refers to the type of work that a person does while employment refers to a person with a job,” he explained.

He said the SWS surveyed joblessness while the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) counts the employed individuals in the country.

“It is important to note that the LFS is the official source of employment information and adopted by the economies globally, including the Philippines,” he said. “Also, the sample population, age, reference period of the survey, and criteria used to define unemployed are factors that account for the difference between the PSA and SWS data.”

He said that the April 2020 LFS recorded 17.7 percent unemployment rate or equivalent to 7.43 million unemployed persons.

“And our own monitoring of job displacements in the formal sector now stands at 3.3 million workers who are either in Flexible Work Arrangements, temporary closure or have lost their jobs due to retrenchment or permanent closure of establishments,” he said.

Bello expressed optimism that the enactment of the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, or the Bayanihan 2 bill will boost the government’s efforts to provide needed assistance to workers in the formal and informal sectors, including the affected overseas Filipino workers, to restart the economy.

He is also hoping that a vaccine against Covid-19 can be made available soonest “so that we can bring back the confidence of our people”. (PNA)