Many of the basic policies affecting HRD discussed in the previous section are touched upon in the current Plan. Also mentioned are macroeconomic policies, improvement of productivity, promotion of more employment opportunities, elimination of biases against labor use, promotion of small enterpreneurship and self-employment, reorientation of the skills development programs towards the manpower requirements of the economy and a non-interventionist policy in wage-setting.

These are broad policies, however. Experience tells us that the problem usually lies in the translation of these policies into concrete programs and in their implementation.

This paper did not set out to identify specific measures which can offer messianic solutions to all of the nation's development problems. To a great extent, this responsibility rests in the hands of our national development planners, policy- and decision-makers.

Instead, what has been attempted here is to put into perspective the role of labor market analysis in total HRD Planning. The paper had to go through the motions of analyzing past and current labor market behavior. This was necessary to illustrate the need for such an analysis in the planning process. Furthermore, it gives one an idea of the many interacting components of the labor market and how policies on wages and incomes, education and manpower training, employment promotion, etc., as well as macroeconomic and social development policies can influence labor market behavior.

Given all these, one conclusion is reached: that an integrated HRD Planning cannot be complete nor effective without a thorough understanding of the labor market. And for the next five years and beyond, much of the success or failure in attaining such ambitious national development targets would greatly depend on how we can harness our manpower resources through conscious and careful planning.