Jobless Filipinos increase amid crisis

THE number of unemployed Filipinos rose in July as both the government and the private sector generated fewer jobs amid an increase in those seeking work, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said Tuesday.

The NSO reported an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, or 2.92 million Filipinos out of work in July, from 7.4 percent, or 2.75 million in the same month last year.

The July jobless rate was slightly higher than April’s 7.5 percent.

The agency said the current unemployment rate is “not significantly” different from July last year.
Of the estimated 59.5 million population 15 years old and over in July, about 38.4 million persons were reported to be in the labor force for a participation rate (LFPR) of 64.6 percent. This was slightly higher than last year’s LFPR of 64.3 percent.

Despite the higher unemployment rate, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said the Philippine labor market remained resilient despite the global crisis, adding that job generation increased by 2.6 percent.

Santos, however, said that new labor entrants outnumbered employment generation, as the 916,000 net employment generated failed to match the employment needs of the 1.1 million labor entrants as well as the unemployed work force.

Philippine economic growth slowed sharply to 0.6 percent in the first quarter on account of the global slowdown, but recovered to 1.5 percent in the succeeding three-month period. Following the second-quarter rebound, the country’s economic managers had said they are likely to revise upward this year’s growth target from the current 0.8 percent to 1.8 percent range.

The NSO said about 35.5 million Filipinos were employed in July, of which 51.5 percent worked in the services sector.

The agency said workers in the agriculture sector accounted for 33.6 percent of the total employed. Only 14.8 percent of the total employed were in the industry sector.

Employment generation in construction hit 128,000 and in mining and quarrying, 22,000.

However, jobs fell in manufacturing by 12,000, and in utilities by 1000.

The industry sector’s economic output contracted by 0.3 percent, hurt by a 7.2 percent slump in manufacturing, which includes in its ranks scores of exporters that fell by the wayside because of the slowdown in international trade.

Among the various occupation groups, laborers and unskilled workers comprised the largest proportion with 33 percent of the total employed population. Farmers, forestry workers and fishermen were the second largest group, accounting for 16.2 percent of the total.

“There should be no respite in channeling the government’s multi­pronged efforts toward a better quality of the labor force in the midst of early indicators that the global crisis is winding down. The country should be ready for the race to the rebound, where competitiveness matters,” Santos said.

He also said that the generally strong domestic labor market could still be boosted by the continued implementation of the Economic Resiliency Plan (ERP), the improvement of Philippine competitiveness, and the development of alternative energy and climate change adaptation as potential sources of job creation. –Darwin G. Amojelar, Senior Reporter, Manila Times