Unemployed climb­s to 14M

Govt sees end of global crisis for Philippines
 
The government admitted that unemployment figures were growing, with its data showing that jobless Filipinos numbered about 14 million in the first three months of 2009.

Private research and survey institutions, however, reported that the actual number of unemployed Filipinos in the first quarter of this year exceeded the official figure.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), though, sees fewer Filipinos losing their jobs, at least at the start of the second quarter of 2009. It cited recently released figures from the Labor department.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, the agency’s deputy director general, Rolando Tungpalan said the number of workers laid off from April 1 to 15 was just 1,026, compared to 14,512 workers who lost their jobs in March.

And the Defense department, in an effort to help the government generate additional jobs for the thousands of workers who had been reportedly displaced, announced also on Tuesday that it has more than 3,000 vacancies in its various offices.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said the department would hire 3,545 workers for slots at the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, Government Arsenal, National Defense College of the Philippines and Office of Civil Defense.

SWS survey

In its latest survey, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported also on Tuesday that unemployment among Filipinos has risen to a record-high 34.2 percent.

This means that during the first three months of 2009, there were 14 million Filipinos who had no jobs.

About three million of that had lost their jobs within the previous three months, SWS said.

The survey also found that of the 2.9 million unemployed Filipinos, 13 percent voluntarily left their old jobs, while 12 percent were retrenched—9 percent were laid off and 3 percent had unrenewed previous contracts.

Estimates provided by independent think-tank IBON Foundation are closer to the SWS figures than those in data released by the government.

“Officially released figures already show an increase of 180,000 jobless Filipinos, which is reported to have reached 2.9 million in the latest labor force survey. However, the real unemployment rate is not 7.7 percent as officially reported but likely to be at least 11.2 percent. Combined with the 6.2 million unemployed means that there were at least 10.6 million Filipinos jobless or otherwise looking for more work and pay in January 2009,” IBON said.

It described the government’s report as “a gross underestimation of joblessness.”

SWS noted that unemployment among adult Filipinos had been over 20 percent most of the time in the last four years.

“Adult unemployment in the SWS surveys has been 20 percent and above since May 2005, except for December 2007 when it was 17.5 percent,” it reported.

“In the SWS data series which began in 1993, unemployment was below 15 percent until March 2004, and then ranged from 16.5 percent to 19 percent from August 2004 to March 2005,” SWS said.

“Over the past four quarters, adult unemployment [was] dominated by those who voluntarily left their old work, and those who were retrenched—either by getting laid off or by not having their contracts renewed.”

The SWS survey on unemployment was conducted from February 20 to 23 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults in Metro Manila, the balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Margins of error are plus or minus 2.5 percent for national percentages and plus or minus 6 percent for area percentages.

SWS said its quarterly surveys on unemployment were not commissioned but are done on its own initiative and released as a public service.

Jobs in military

In his announcement, Defense Secretary Teodoro said the department would hire 3,545 workers, especially those who had been affected by retrenchments.

Once hired, the workers would be employed on a job-order basis for a period not beyond December 31, 2009.

Under Department Order 57 signed by Teodoro, successful applicants will be assigned to the department with 88 vacancies; Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, 21; government arsenal, 30; National Defense College of the Philippines, 7; Office of Civil Defense, seven; Veterans Memorial Medical Center, 92; and Military Shrines Services, four.

Positions are also available at Armed Forces branches and units: 514 at the General Headquarters, 1,098 at the Philippine Army, 855 at the Philippine Air Force, and 829 at the Philippine Navy.

Teodoro said salaries of the new employees would come from the P1-billion budget apportioned from the Comprehensive Livelihood Emergency Employment Program of the government.

He added that the Defense department has set aside 1.5 percent of its budget for maintenance and other operating expenses to support the rest of the needed funds.

The department’s emergency employment initiative was in line with Executive Order 782, which provides for the implementation of “measures to assist workers affected by the global financial crisis and [for the] temporary filling-up of vacant positions in the government.”

Under the employment initiative, a married displaced worker and his qualified dependents—spouse and children—and a displaced worker who is single and his qualified dependents—parents, sisters and brothers—could apply for the vacancies.

Fewer layoffs seen

The fewer layoffs, Deputy Director General Tungpalan said in a report that he presented to a Cabinet meeting in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, are “a smoking gun of an impending [economic] recovery.”

He added that some business firms that had laid off workers at the height of the global crisis have been rehiring, particularly those that are located in Calabarzon and Cebu. Calabarzon groups the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.

In the overseas front, Tungpalan said the Philippines has countered massive layoffs of overseas Filipino workers by sending an average of 3,000 workers a day in the last three months.

The country’s overseas employment is bright, he added, noting the 15,000 to 20,000 jobs being offered in Guam, 60,000 in Saudi Arabia and 20,000 in Qatar.

With the deployment in the Middle East, Tungpalan said, the government expects higher remittances in the second half of 2009.

With the continuing recovery of major industrial powers such as the United States and Japan as well as some European countries, he added, the Philippines has a better outlook.

Based on recent assessment, Tungpalan said the US and Japan, the Philippines’ primary trading partners, are expected to move out of recession late this year. European countries, he added, may have a much slower recovery moving out of recession in the later part of 2010.

The Philippines’ “recovery may be slow but we’re heading in that direction and we expect to remain resilient despite the crisis,” Tungpalan said.
— Rommel C. Lontayao, Angelo S. Samonte And Jefferson Antiporda, Manila Times