Unemployment rate in the Philippines will remain until the next months according to many analysts. The Philippines has one of the highest unemployment levels in Southeast Asia, standing at 6.8 percent as of October 2008, according to the country’s National Statistics Office. In Luzon, northern Philippines, Intel Corp., the first U.S. semiconductor firm that has established a facility in the Philippines, shut down its factory and retrenched 1,800 workers. In Cebu, southern Philippines, furniture maker and exporter Giardini del Sole Inc. has temporarily shut down and laid off about 250 workers as a result of the financial crisis. These and more have become threats to most Pinoy-based companies in the country.
The Philippine Labor Department reported that 40,000 workers were retrenched, 33,000 workers are experiencing shorter working hours while over 5,400 overseas Filipino workers were displaced because of the crisis. This March 2009, 700,000 graduating students are first to face these problems. The fear of not getting any job after graduation is a common feeling to all anyways.
We always have this feeling together with disappointments about the government, which seems to be blamed for why we remain as the most unemployed country in South East Asia. But the truth is that, we are not alone in Asia or around the globe experiencing this problem. We must face the fact that we are living in a period of global economic crisis.
I am about to graduate this March 30, 2009 in my baccalaureate course- Bachelor of Science in Management. I am just a common Filipino hoping for a bright future after graduation and I cannot do anything about all these disappointments. Nor I have control over the actions of our state leaders regarding solutions to address the problem. But I have a BIG FAITH coming from above that “God will provide”. Though I have these facts about unemployment registered in my mind, I just keep on hoping that there’s something for me out there, God is good so why worry?
I wonder how the birds could eat everyday in spite of the fact that they are not able to plant seeds. The flowers stood-up so beautifully everyday without any sign of creation by themselves. I believe we are loved by God more than the birds and flowers.
By Gr88n
