Internationally used as a distress signal in radio communications, a “Mayday” signals a life-threatening emergency happening onboard a plane or a sinking ship. Spoken three times in row (“Mayday Mayday Mayday”), it comes from the French phrase for “come help me” (venez m’aider) and requests immediate assistance from those who receive the call.

One might have issued the call last week during Labor Day (May 1), also known as May Day. Commemorating the historic struggle for an eight-hour day and the protests against the 1886 Haymarket massacre of striking workers in Chicago, International Workers’ Day has been traditionally remembered with various actions and demonstrations. This May Day, however, comes at a particularly critical year as labor statistics reflect record-high joblessness and widespread lay-offs amid the global crisis.

According to IBON Foundation, the average real unemployment rate of over 11 percent for the period of 2001 up to the first quarter of 2009 is the worst in Philippine history. The shrinking number of workers in the manufacturing sector reflects its dependence on US export markets as the global financial crisis worsen. It has lost a combined total of about 259,000 jobs for the years 2007 and 2008.

Even the number of OFW jobs have been affected by the recession as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has reported 5,774 displaced OFWs in more than 15 countries, as of February 2009.

Emergency programs by the government appear to be inadequate since even the projected 800,000 new jobs it would create is already less than the incoming new graduates and labor force entrants numbering to more than 900,000. Even the job fairs held in malls have only bagged a few of those who came seeking for work. The few available opportunities are mainly in the sales and service industries.

This problem is chronic as we lack basic industries that could provide jobs for our population. Basic industries such as steel production are absent. Manufacturing of machinery, chemicals, and other industrial products are limited or non-existent.

Employment in major economic sectors would reflect this low development in industry. The yearly employment profile reflects the small and underdeveloped level of industrial production. The labor profile from 1960 to 1995 showed that the share of the industry and manufacturing have not risen between 15 percent and 11 percent of the total workforce in the country.

The industries present in the Philippines are composed of light manufacturing, construction, public utility and mining enterprises dependent on imported equipment and raw materials. Most of these are paid for by the foreign-exchange earnings of raw-material export plus foreign loans.

Local industries that engage in micro and livelihood enterprises make up nine-tenths of all the business in the country. These are home-based cottage industries are engaged in furniture making, handicrafts, food preparation and garments that employ low technology and labor-management structure having less that ten workers. Micro enterprises would not be sufficient to industrialize the nation as it only subsist on simple tool and equipment with a very small management structure. Its weakness would emanate from being unstable with its informal and semi-formal employment, little job security, lack of standard benefits and wages below the minimum.

Even the small to medium enterprises comprising 10-199 workers are too small to respond to the prerequisite for industrialization. An almost negligible 1 percent of the total number of businesses accounts for large enterprises is concentrated in garments and semiconductor production. Service providers of basic utilities such as telecommunications, transportation, water and electricity exists although most technologies as well as research and development for the maintenance and upgrading of these utilities are mostly foreign sourced.

This is indeed an emergency that merits a mayday. We have to act to stop the deindustrialization of our nation. Our mayday is two-fold: immediate and long-term. There are immediate reforms that could provide relief such as the removal of VAT on oil and power, providing monetary and other incentives for Filipino workers and businesses.

Labor schemes that tend to undermine job security should be stopped.

Social services should be improved. Other ways to increase available public funds such as stopping debt payments should be considered. This immediate relief would allow our workers to survive the economic crisis that has been aggravated by the external financial crunch.

For the long-term, a way out of this jobs crisis is to reverse the trade and investment liberalization policies that decimated local industries and worsened the situation for Filipino workers. Support should be given for Filipino producers such as financing, technological support, direct access to raw materials, as well as a better infrastructure. Maybe only then will Filipino workers be truly celebrating during May Day.