‘Even 7.5% growth will not create enough jobs’

Unemployment is bound to persist even if the economy proves resilient enough to hit the highest target growth rate this year, given the huge number of jobless adults in the country, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said on Tuesday.

NEDA Director-General Arsenio Balisacan told the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) at a Senate briefing on the 2015 National Expenditure Program (NEP) that the government’s 2014 growth target range of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent can only generate 1.1 million new jobs.