Informal food vendors pitch their improvised stalls and receive inadequate assistance from the government. Photographed by Tricia Aquino, InterAksyon.com.
MANILA - The number of Filipino workers in the informal economy and who cannot afford the cost of living standard of P19.50 per meal a day have reached 27.1 million since January this year, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa (TUCP-Nagkaisa) disclosed Monday, citing statistics from the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released in March this year
According to that PSA survey, there are 27.1 million workers working in the informal sector economy out of the 67.153 million total work force beginning this year.
Informal sector workers include jeepney and tricycle drivers, wet and dry goods vendors, bus and truck drivers and conductors, truck assistants, salesladies, barbers, beauticians and port workers.
In October 2015, there were 26.853 million workers in the informal economy, PSA data further showed.
Some 40 million of the 67.153 million work force are employed, while 2.466 million are unemployed and 7.879 million are described as underemployed.
TUCP-Nagkaisa spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said the informal economy or so-called "underground economy" sector are comprised in great part by individuals who operate businesses that are very small in scale and not registered with any national of formal government agency.
Workers in the informal economy typically sell their goods or services in exchange for subsistence wages or other forms of compensation.
The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimated that a family of five needs P8,778 a month which is equivalent to P292.60 a day or P19.50 per person for three meals a day in 2012.
The two agencies also indicated that workers in the informal sector economy earn an average income of just P5,750 a month or P221.15 a day.
Based on this correspondence of data, Tanjusay said, workers need to earn a minimum of P3,028 a month more, or P100.93 more a day, in order to survive.
He observed that informal sector workers are the working people most vulnerable to risks, and often engage in variety of schemes just to cope.
"Despite their significant contribution to the growing economy, government intervention for them to survive, or to cope, is very small. They have no choice, but try to cope on their own and meet both ends day by day, not by weeks or by months.
"Most of them borrow money from loan operators despite exorbitant 6 to 10 percent interest rates. Some bet in daily, small-time illegal gambling. Some are engaged in supplemental sideline work," Tanjusay said. - InterAksyon.com
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