The Philippines has recorded its highest number of employed individuals and the lowest unemployment and underemployment rates under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

“We are on track,” Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said on Tuesday. “Today you have roughly 49 million people working, the highest ever in our history, pinakamababang unemployment rate, pinakamababang underemployment rate.”

During the 2024 post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) Discussions at the Hilton Hotel in Pasay City, Recto said the “middle class is growing” and the “share of wage and salary worker is roughly 64 percent.”

Since President Marcos took office, 2.5 million Filipinos were lifted from poverty, he said.

“In spite of all the global economic challenges, considering that we just came out of a pandemic that there are two hot wars, there’s a trade war, there is a cold war. In spite of all these, the last two years of the Marcos administration grew by roughly an average of 6.1 percent,” he added.

To attain the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) goals or reducing poverty to 9 percent, Recto said the country has to “grow an average of anywhere from six to seven percent” for the remaining term of the President.

“Ang target by 2028 is reduced poverty incidence to a single digit to 9%, ibig sabihin noon, sampung milyon pa ang mababawasan natin sa kahirapan, who will elevate their lives to higher than the poverty incidence,” Recto said.

“So, iyan naman talaga ang dahilan kung bakit kung tayong lahat nandito to reduce poverty incidence para magkaroon ng magandang buhay iyong ating mga kababayan para nga tayo magkaroon ng bagong Pilipinas,” he added.

President Marcos announced in his third SONA on Monday that the country’s employment rate has risen to 95.9 percent. PND