Over 121,000 Filipinos’ jobs hit amid global crisis: official

CLARK – Over 121,000 Filipino workers have either lost their jobs or suffered pay cuts or reduced work loads because of the economic crisis, a government official said Sunday.

Between October last year and mid-March, 11,574 permanently lost their jobs and 38,806 others were temporarily laid off by Philippines-based companies, Labor Undersecretary Rosalinda Baldoz told an economic forum in this industrial enclave north of Manila.

A total of 59,149 others were placed on flexible work arrangements, she added.

Meanwhile, 12,000 out of the 8.5 million-strong Filipino work force abroad had lost their jobs, mostly in Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates, according to Baldoz.

Last week the government said electronics firms based in the Philippines began giving their remaining workers half-pay or P150 (3.11 dollars) a day in a bid to keep them employed until demand picks up again.

The labor undersecretary said the electronics sector was the worst hit with almost half the total work force affected.

The crisis has also hit about 10 percent of employees in the automotive, garments, mining, property, services, and woodworking industries, she added.

She went on to say the government expects the crisis to bottom out over the next few months as just 397 workers a day were losing their jobs in mid-March compared to 437 at the start of the month.

“Before the first semester ends, we could say that the worst is over,” she said.

“In the next five months, workers’ displacements will continue but we expect it to be on a slower pace and only in the export manufacturing sector.” –Agence France-Presse