Vice President Leni Robredo said the rise in joblessness means that the bigger war that the country is fighting is against poverty.

Robredo expounded her thoughts on the fight against poverty during her speech delivered at a gathering of development workers at the Grand Ballroom of Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria on Wednesday.

She cited the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS ) survey for the 4th quarter of 2016 which showed 11.2 Million of Filipinos are jobless, meaning Philippine unemployment rate has grown by 6.7% from the September 2016 numbers.

On Monday, SWS released a study showing that an additional 3 million Filipinos were jobless, as the unemployment rate rose to 25.1 percent or 11.2 million adults in December, up from 18.4 percent or 8.2 million adults in September.

Despite this, more Filipinos were optimistic that more jobs would be available.

• READ: SWS: Joblessness rises to 2-year high, optimism climbs

"This is the worst since December 2014 and should be a wake up call for all of us on the urgent need to focus on the real problems at hand--the need to open our eyes to the truth that many Filipinos are still fighting to have enough means to survive day-to-day," Robredo said.

She also called for policies that are evidence-based.

Robredo also said Filipinos should not to be distracted with public discourse that has been marked with confusion and cynicism.

"With so many issues that confront us today, it is so easy to be distracted with all the political noise and neglect the fact that there is a bigger war at stake and that is the war on poverty."