ADVOCACY MEMO 0003-2023-12-20

ADVOCACY MEMO 0003-2023-12-20 TO: DOLE Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma CC: NLRC/PSA/NEDA/OES RE: Legal Definition of the Unemployment Rate According to Investopedia, unemployment refers to “a situation where a person actively searches for employment but is unable to find work”. It appears however that in the present local definition of who are included in the so-called “labor force”, all the those who are “jobless” are included, regardless of whether they are actively seeking employment or not. Looking at it from another angle, it seems that the gathering of data about “underemployment” somehow overlaps with the data about “unemployed”. My late brother Ambassador Roy Seneres said that a person is “underemployed” if he or she has to work on a job that is below his or her qualifications. It seems that right now however, “underemployed” is interpreted to mean that a person is working less than eight hours a day. And then there is that other question of who is really “self-employed”. What about those who are just trying to sell goods on the streets and in the wet markets but could not even make both ends meet? Should they be considered “self-employed”? if the answer is no, then it would come out that the real unemployment rate is really higher than what we think it is. RAMON IKE V. SENERES