The government has allocated over P1 trillion for the country’s employment recovery action plan under the National Employment Recovery Strategy.
Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique Tutay said this is included in the budget allocations of different government agencies that helped in the creation of the eight-point employment recovery action plan under the 2021 General Appropriations Act.
“Our total budget allocation for the different programs is about P1.14 trillion and we have another funding proposal of P24 billion. It targets to benefit 1.4 million Filipinos,” she said during the virtual press conference with the Task Group of Economic Recovery yesterday.
She added that the employment target of the government under the Philippine Development Plan is “still at the level of 2.4 to 2.8 million Filipinos”.
Tutay said there will be no employment opportunities that will be created for the 1.4 million beneficiaries.
“I would like to clarify that for the 1.4 million beneficiaries there will be no employment that will be created. It means that the workers will benefit from wage subsidy, training programs of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and different agencies of the government and business establishments,” she added.
As for the P24-billion proposal, she said that they have yet to find the source of funds for this measure.
Tutay said NERS is not just about the preservation of employment but it also targets the creation of employment.
“Creation of employment will follow if we were able to restore the businesses. Restoration is included in the program enrolled in the 8-point employment recovery action plan mainly supporting the passage of legislation and policies that strengthen economic recovery, extend assistance to establishments through loans and deferment of applicable fees, upgrading of processes to enable businesses not to fold up so that job creation will be continuous,” she added.
NERS is a medium-term plan geared towards creating employment opportunities and improving the employability of Filipinos while taking into consideration the changes in the labor market brought by the pandemic and the fast adoption of the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies.*PNA
