Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) condemned the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for its statement counting Filipinos who work a minimum of one hour per week as employed. The agency announced in a senate hearing for the 2025 budget proposal on September 5.

“DOLE and the Marcos Jr government are utterly unbelievable. They keep changing all the standards,” Jerome Adonis, KMU secretary general and Koalisyong Makabayan senatorial candidate, commented.

Ibon Foundation said the government should tone down its boasting about a “vibrancy of the labor market,” as more than one million young workers are unemployed, and the number of Filipinos working “part time” has increased by 2.4 million.”

In July, 1.02 million youth were unemployed, 172,000 higher than the 850,000 unemployed in July last year. Of this number, 91% are not working, studying or undergoing training (NEET) and are thus at great risk of falling into poverty.

Most of the new jobs are irregular, temporary and low-paying, Ibon said. “This could mean many Filipinos, including the youth, are just taking on whatever work they can find.”

In fact, the number of part-time workers grew from 12.3 million in July 2023 to 14.7 million in July 2024. Workers “employed but not in the workplace” increased by 87,000.

“Marcos’ countless acrobatics to project his administration’s accomplishments cannot deny that wages are low, there is not enough work and poverty is widespread,” Adonis criticized.

It called government officials “world champions” in “mental gymnastics.”

Some senators also questioned this DOLE definition of the employed, saying that this may cause a mismatch between state statistics and reality. The Marcos regime recorded the employment rate at 96.9% in June 2024 and the unemployment rate at 3.1%.