NSO labor force survey misleading

“The survey is misleading and skewed to present a rosy picture of the labor sector in support of Arroyo’s supposed economic gains and use this to prep up Administration ticket during this mid-term election.”

This was the take of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center to the recently released January 2007 Labor Force Survey (LFS) by the National Statistics Office (NSO) describing a single digit jobless rate.

According to Elmer “Ka Bong” Labog, National Chairperson of the KMU, the LFS usually presents more of “fiction than fact.”

“The NSO in April 2005 changed the unemployment definition which immediately resulted in a dip in the unemployment rate. Using the old definition, unemployment for July 2006 was 11.7% but by simply using a new definition that people who are no longer seeking work because of varied reasons are no longer part of the labor force, the figure dramatically fell to 8.0%. The decline in unemployment happened without any real increase in employment in the real world but was a result of data manipulation,” stated Labog.

“The concept of employed by the NSO is actually skewed to present a progressive labor force environment rather that presenting the deteriorating situation of workers,” said Labog. Based on the definition of the NSO, an individual is considered employed as long as he or she worked for at least an hour during the 1 week reference period. “This definition defies real world situation and assumes a worker can survive on an hour’s work for a whole week. It is not only fallacious but insulting to the growing number of working poor in the Philippines.”

Labog also cited the inclusion of unpaid family labor to the number of employed as part of the distortion. The NSO declared 11.5% of the total employed as unpaid family labor. The labor leader also noted that 3,000 Filipinos goes out of the country everyday to seek work and this tell of a different story from what the NSO would like to paint.

“As May Day approaches, the agency under the Department of Labor and Employment and other related agencies are vigorously spewing lies and misinformation and convince the public that workers are actually better off. It becomes even more important as we are in the midst of the mid-term elections and Arroyo is bragging of unrivaled economic gains under her regime. But such praises for Arroyo cannot feed out family and children. What the workers want is a P125 across-the-board wage increase and that is what matters,” ended Labog.