PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III was reminded yesterday of his campaign promise to provide jobs for Filipinos.

Kabataan party-list Rep.Raymond Palatino said that with the more than 400,000 graduates this year, the unemployment rate will go up unless the President improves his job plan.

“I urge President Aquino to improve his job plan for our graduates and unveil this plan to the public. A challenge comparable to attaining a college education will soon confront the first batch of graduates under the Aquino administration,” Palatino said.

He said that the current measures undertaken by the Aquino administration will not be enough to meet the growing need for quality employment.

The Department of Labor and Employment on Monday announced that the agency has begun conducting career orientation and employment coaching through seminars.

“More than seminars, what President Aquino should ensure is the availability of quality jobs for our graduates. No amount of coaching would be useful if majority of our graduates won’t have jobs in the end. There is an urgent need for President Aquino to be more committed in generating jobs,” the solon said.

As of 2010, official figures show that the country has around 2.8 million unemployed Filipinos, half of whom are aged between 15-24 while a third are 25 to 34 years old.

“Majority of our unemployed belong to the youth sector. The talents and skills of our youth will only go to waste if decent work is not provided to them,” Palatino said. 

He said that compounding the problem of unemployment is the increase in part-time or contractual work especially after the global economic crisis exploded in 2008.

According to DOLE  the average number of underemployed persons with less than 40 hours of work per week increased from 11.9 million in 2008 to 12.9 million in 2009. Of the 12.9 million, as much as 4.6 million even work for less than 20 hours per week.

“More and more jobseekers are given no choice but to accept underemployment in the form of part-time or contractual work. It is an issue as urgent as unemployment for it points to the quality of available work in the country. Under contractual labor, workers are subjected to various malpractices like inability to demand for higher pay or job security unless they want to be replaced immediately,” Palatino said.

“Dignity of work is something that is gravely lacking in our country. It is this grim labor condition that will confront our new graduates. What is the current administration doing about this? So far, nothing even close to substantial,” he added.