Boosting youth employment with higher wages in the Philippines

Senator Sonny Angara has urged the Philippines government to create higher-paying jobs for workers aged 15 to 30 years as the age group has the lowest pay in the country.

There are 13.8 million employed workers in the age group, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), said Angara, reported the Philippine News Agency.

“The quality of jobs that we produce is what we should be looking after. We should be asking ourselves and our government agencies what we can do to help enable the private sector to produce higher paying, higher quality jobs,” Angara said in a statement.

The government cannot be content with pushing for the creation of the same low-paying jobs in the same industries if it wants to boost the unemployment and underemployment rate, he said.

“What we need to do is to have the government agencies involved in job creation to help the private sector, particularly the industries and entrepreneurs, to create higher paying jobs for Filipinos.”

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“We can redirect public investments towards digital, care and green economies that will not only produce a significant number of new jobs but also provide a boost to the country’s gross domestic product over time,” Angara said.