WESTERN Visayas has a jobs problem far more serious than the unemployment rate alone suggests. It is not simply that thousands cannot find work. An extraordinary number of those who already have jobs are telling us, through the statistics, that the work they have is simply not enough.
As reported by this paper recently, Philippine Statistics Authority data showed that underemployment in the region surged to 31.8 percent in April 2026, representing some 665,000 workers. That is a staggering increase from 17.3 percent in January and 24.3 percent in April last year. Nearly one out of every three employed Western Visayans wanted additional work, longer working hours or another job.
That should set off alarm bells in every provincial capitol, city hall and economic planning office in Western Visayas.
Having a job does not automatically mean having economic security. A worker may be counted as “employed” even when the hours, income or opportunities provided by that job are inadequate. This is why underemployment deserves as much attention as unemployment. It exposes the disconcerting reality hidden behind seemingly reassuring employment figures.
And even those reassuring figures are deteriorating.
The region’s unemployment rate climbed to 6.3 percent, equivalent to about 141,000 people, from 5.5 percent in January and just 4.0 percent in April 2025. Meanwhile, the employment rate slipped to 93.7 percent from 96.0 percent a year earlier.
Put the two problems together and the message becomes unmistakable: Western Visayas needs not merely more jobs, but better jobs.
Economic development cannot be measured solely by new buildings, booming commercial districts, infrastructure projects, investments or ribbon-cutting ceremonies. These matter, but their real value must ultimately be measured by whether economic growth produces stable and sufficiently rewarding livelihoods for ordinary people.
The 31.8-percent underemployment rate suggests that the benefits of economic activity are not translating adequately into quality employment. People may be working, but hundreds of thousands are still searching for additional hours and additional sources of income.
This should compel government planners to look beyond employment counts. What kinds of jobs are being created? Are they full-time or intermittent? Do they provide enough working hours? Are workers’ skills being matched with available opportunities? Are investments generating substantial local employment, or are too many Western Visayans being pushed into precarious and insufficient work?
The numbers become even more troubling because more people entered or returned to the labor market between January and April. The labor force grew by about 25,000 during the period, yet the economy struggled to provide enough adequate employment for them.
Western Visayas therefore needs an employment strategy centered on job quality, productivity and income-generating capacity. Local governments and national agencies must aggressively attract industries capable of creating stable, higher-value employment while strengthening agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, construction, information technology, logistics and small and medium enterprises. Skills training must likewise correspond to actual labor-market demand rather than merely produce certificates without jobs waiting at the other end.
Most importantly, policymakers must stop treating a high employment rate as sufficient evidence of economic well-being. A worker who has a job but must desperately look for another one just to earn enough is employed statistically, but economically vulnerable.
When 665,000 workers — nearly one-third of Western Visayas’ employed population — are asking for more work, the region cannot congratulate itself simply because they technically have jobs.
The challenge is no longer just to put people to work.
It is to make work worth enough to live on.
