UNEMPLOYMENT and underemployment still remain perennial problems in the country today. In the recently adopted International Labor Organization definition, the unemployed include people 15 years old and above reported to be without work, currently available for work, and/or still looking for work, while underemployment means being “inadequately employed or having a low-paying job that requires less skill or training than one possesses.”
Recent surveys of the National Statistics Office (NSO) show a 91.9% employment rate in the country, while unemployed Filipinos totaled 2.8 million in January this year, which translates into an unemployment rate of 8.1%. It looks pretty impressive at first glance, but according to the Labor Force Statistics table, a big percentage of Filipinos with jobs are unskilled workers and inadequately employed with very low wage. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s aggressive outtake in creating jobs helped many Filipinos, but it hardly made a dent in the unemployment rate.
Every year, thousands of students break their backs just to earn their college degrees. Most of the time, however, they find themselves either idle or working for a dead-end job due to lack of good opportunities here. Hence, many hopefuls fly to other parts of the world to look for greener pastures and make lots of “greens” as well, leaving a brain-drain effect in the country. This is a grim situation that makes me wonder about the kind of future awaiting the graduates of 2006.
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Graduation is supposed to be a joyous moment for every student—a time to give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back for working so hard and overcoming trials, a time to congratulate yourself because now you’re a step closer to your dreams. But right now, I’m dreading mine.
I’m sincerely happy and relieved (more so my parents) that I’ve been able to finish college, but I’m also overwhelmed by fear and paranoia. What if I don’t get hired and become a bum forever? What if I don’t get to practice my craft? What if I don’t succeed in life? These questions flood my mind and I can’t help but be scared of the future and the doom that may be impending. Current financial difficulties also add to the pressure.
They say journalism, the field I’ve chosen, isn’t easy, or lucrative, for that matter. There will be no more of the petty paper works or assignments I’ve gotten familiar with. It’s a whole new arena after college; you work alone and live by the hour. But a professor once told us that since “we are in the field of information, we will never run out of jobs.” I’m holding him to that statement.
To the graduates of 2006 and all Filipino students, kudos and God bless. Hopefully, the claws of unemployment will not get us.
