The pandemic has cost us a lot of lost jobs and the rising problem of unemployment seems to be growing every year. This is because many small to medium businesses got defeated by the restrictions the Covid-19 virus has given us as well as the scare of getting infected shared by the public. Now that we are getting closer and closer to being back in the normal economic structure, we are faced with the national problem of getting back those jobs we lost. So, how can new infrastructures accelerate the creation of more and better jobs for the public? Some of us strive hard to find employment even in places where our expertise is not being utilized, and we even venture into different industries just to place food on the table. Some businesses are even having a hard time recruiting the right people for their company. With the need that we have for better jobs that can help the economy go back to how they were before the pandemic, our government is also looking at ways where they can create the supply that we need for our nation to get back on its feet.
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Infrastructures and the jobs it creates benefit the places where those infrastructures are built by providing opportunities for their residents to get jobs and make income out of it. This is how new infrastructures accelerate the creation of more and better jobs for the public. It is a great way for a certain country or a city to stimulate the growth of its economy by the creation of jobs where the infrastructures are built, and by creating these direct and indirect jobs, we give opportunities for our economic development and give the people the capacity to earn and spend money. Physical infrastructures also help in industrialization and economic development. In general, physical infrastructure consists of two parts – economic infrastructure such as telecommunications, roads, irrigation, and electricity; and social infrastructures such as water supply, sewage systems, hospitals, and school facilities. It has been demonstrated that physical infrastructure development improves the long-term production and income levels of an economy in both the macroeconomic endogenous growth literature and empirical studies. Moreover, several micro studies have shown that the development of infrastructure is one of the indispensable components of poverty reduction. This is how new infrastructures accelerate the creation of more and better jobs for the public. According to the Asian Development Bank, the economic growth in Asia, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the current global growth, has been guided by continued investments in a variety of physical infrastructures. This means that the solution to providing quality jobs to the masses requires investments into creating physical infrastructures that will benefit everyone and will give us the opportunity that we need to get the economy going.
The Philippine economy ranks the highest among the other nations in Southeast Asia in recent years, but we are still faced with issues from the outdated infrastructures available to its citizens. This is proven by the fact that the daily commute in Metro Manila takes longer than it has to be. Take for example, according to studies, it takes more than 5 minutes to travel 1 kilometer in certain areas where the traffic is seen to be worse. This has a significant effect on the way people do business and their preferences in the places where they can build their businesses on. To tackle this known issue, the government’s ‘Build Build Build’ project will address major problems that outdated or missing infrastructures give. This is how we address the problem of how can new infrastructures accelerate the creation of more and better jobs for the public.
Transportation
The need for better roads will ultimately create better jobs and make them more available to the people. For example, a better transport system will help farmers bring their produce such as vegetables and fruits to markets and raise the income of the rural population. This will also create better opportunities for the citizens of rural areas to create more supply and employ the local population in massive production of their supply. A better transport system can also allow the people in the provinces to have opportunities to work in the city without spending a lot on transportation costs. This will in turn allow businesses and companies to have flexibility in the recruitment process for people that are considered to be too far away in terms of distance. By having quality transport services, we also encourage investors to venture into different businesses located in the different parts of and outside the city. This will give them the flexibility to disperse the businesses that they want to create wherever they need to place them. More generally, the improvements that a better transportation infrastructure provides will help cut the cost of doing and sustaining business and attract more investments and enhance productivity around the country. The project of improving the railway system also presents an opportunity as well for the public to have access to an affordable cost of the commute. The new railway system that will connect Cavite and some parts of Paranaque and Las Pinas will significantly cut the travel time in half when it is finished. This will help not only the commuters but businesses as well to thrive on the opportunities for income in the stations along the railway. This will also mean that this transport infrastructure will help create more jobs available to its local population, wherever the stations are located. This transport infrastructure will also in turn help in relieving the number of vehicles present on the national roads usually taken by commuters and private cars by allowing most of the commuting public to have a better option to go to places in Metro Manila and near cities and provinces. By allowing the public to have better options in terms of commuting, they will also have the option to choose places where they can rent apartments that will not be too far anymore from their workplace, this can also allow investors to increase the value of their properties that are near these infrastructures. All in all, the effect of new infrastructures that help the economy grow, will in turn provide a sustainable lifestyle for its citizens.
Telecommunication and the Internet
The new technologies in telecommunication and the internet allowed us to be more connected than ever to the people important to us. This has been the place where businesses also thrive, with the innovation the social media platforms have given us. It is now much easier to connect with the people you want to connect to or find the people you target in the vast market where everyone is present. Unlike in the good old days when we do all our advertising and marketing activities physically, the advancement in technology allowed us to do the usual activities we are used to doing remotely. This advancement made targeting specific people easier and more efficient, with the use of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, we are now more capable of productively managing and allot our resources so that the funds we are placing in marketing and advertising will not be wasted. This advancement in technology also allowed businesses to continue their operations with the use of video calling platforms that allowed colleagues to still run companies and corporations. The important meetings that Zoom and MS Teams allowed us to conduct also ensured that we can still save the businesses our companies have and ultimately, our jobs as well. This advancement has been made possible by the new infrastructures that create opportunities for the upgrade of existing or outdated structures. This is also how new infrastructures accelerate the creation of more and better jobs for the public. In addition, broadband networks also have increased the impact and efficiency of public and private investments which depend on high-speed communication. Broadband is an essential factor that makes other structures work such as buildings, commercial spaces, tollways, transportation systems, electricity grids as well as healthcare facilities allowing them to be “smart”, assist the aging, improve safety and adapt to new ideas. With all the advancement in technology that is coming our way in this digital age, investing in new infrastructures will be the move governments will take and this in turn will create direct and indirect jobs that are not common before. With this need for new jobs, the public will be given the chance to get quality jobs that will disperse the need to be in just one industry for most.
Electric Systems
Our electrical systems are the most important element in this digital age. Our electricity and power infrastructures are the combined physical resources that we are using to create and transmit electrical power across the nation. This is one of the key elements of how our other infrastructures work as those structures require electricity so we can assure that everything will work the way they are supposed to. The systems used for electricity and power can be generally broken down into three subsystems, these are production, transmission, and distribution. All of which need infrastructures to work. The production subsystem is the network of facilities where they generate actual power. These are the nuclear, hydro, and wind power plants. Building infrastructures that address the need to produce power will also create new and updated jobs where the public can benefit in return by getting the direct and indirect jobs these infrastructures produce. Once electricity has been produced, it is transmitted along high voltage transmission lines made specifically to deliver power over long distances. The investments the government has put in the construction of the infrastructures needed to transmit power even in remote places are key to making the economy advance allowing other areas near cities to thrive and create businesses and jobs for its local population. As the power approaches its final destination, electricity passes through a transformer where the voltage is reduced to safer levels so it can be distributed safely to the structures we have like residential and commercial areas. All of this happens so fast that we can compare everything that happened in a blink of an eye. While power is immediately consumed the second it is produced, the need for new infrastructures that complement the area these infrastructures provide service continues to be the issue. Along with the advancement of technology, the need for energy is a continuous need we all share from businesses to homes. The investment in infrastructures for power is the government’s focus to efficiently provide services to everyone and how new infrastructures accelerate the creation of more and better jobs for the public.
Water and Sewage
With the increasing population and the continuous problems and opportunities it provides, water and sewage have been one of the most important infrastructures our society has and is continuing to improve on. As time goes by, the increase in population poses a new threat to the current infrastructures to provide safe clean water as well as dispose of sewage and send it to treatment plants. In addition, this threat made by the increase in population creates a problem since the goal of water and wastewater infrastructures is to provide clean water to everyone as it supports our nation in many ways. Quality water and wastewater infrastructures ensure that the health of the public will be managed by controlling and eliminating waterborne diseases as well as safeguarding the environment by maintaining ecosystems that allow species of plants, animals, and marine life to prosper and provide sustenance for its population. Investments in new infrastructures that will continue to develop how we provide and treat water and its wastes to the public will in turn massively benefit the economic development of our country and also pave the way for the creation of new and quality jobs. For example, hotels require around 150 liters of water per guest every day, an office needs about 50 liters of water per employee every day, and car wash businesses need about 40 liters on average for every vehicle served. Industrial operations use even more water, like for food products, the amount of clean water a factory uses would be about 4,000 liters per employee each day. Other industries also benefit from wastewater treatment as a result of having a cleaner environment for their everyday businesses like fishing and tourism. All of the direct and indirect jobs the water and sewage infrastructures create for the public are massive and with the investments that we have for newer infrastructures, we can assure that the supply of quality jobs this infrastructure provides will not be short soon.
