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Here's some good news from the National Statistics Office: there are 100,000 less unemployed people in the country or 2.8 million in the first month of the year compared to 2.9 million last year.
The bad news is that the underemployment rate went up to 19.7 percent from 18.2 percent last year. By underemployed, this meant the person is not earning the minimum wage due to shorter work hours as a result of corporate downsizing.
The same report also showed that the unemployment rate was lowered somewhat due to the employment of people in election-related activities and services. This could range from being poll watchers, campaign volunteers, research and survey works among others.
This offers a revealing, if somewhat bleak picture of what this year's batch of candidates is facing as they campaign for votes in their areas.
In Cebu, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is pushing for more than a P100 hike in the minimum wage for Central Visayas workers this year, reasoning that it has been two years since the last increase.
Naturally employers resist any wage increase at this time, reasoning that the pressing concern is providing jobs to every able bodied Cebuano rather than an across-the-board wage hike.
We hope the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) rules on this petition before the annual May 1 Labor Day.
In the meantime, incumbent officials like Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña boast and continue to promote Cebu City as the next premier investment and tourist destination with the South Road Properties (SRP) as the the centerpiece of his administration's economic record.
While it is all well and good, even the mayor pointed out that Cebu City alone cannot and shouldn't accommodate the influx of labor from other parts of Cebu province.
It?s not just the municipalities but other Metro Cebu areas which can and should drive employment opportunities outward, instead of reinforcing the migration to the cities.
Left unemployed or underemployed, these residents are left to fend for themselves in urban hovels.
They do so for a couple of years or even a decade until disaser strikes and robs them of their meager possessions, like the fire that struck sitio Aroma, barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City.
It's a multi-pronged problem that needs to be addressed by winners of the May 10 elections.
When voters listen to the song-and-dance numbers of candidates, they should remember to ask what solutions they have for unemployment.
And the answer better not be advice to find jobs abroad.
