More hirings expected next year – BSP survey

MANILA, Philippines – More business enterprises are looking at hiring more workers in the first quarter of next year in light of the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts of the government as well as the global economic recovery.

The quarterly Business Expectations Survey (BES) conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for the fourth quarter showed that the employment outlook for the first quarter continued to be favorable for all sectors particularly for the construction and services sectors.

Rosabele Guerrero, director of the BSP’s Department of Economic Statistics (DES), said the survey’s employment outlook index improved to 8.7 percent in the fourth quarter of the year from -1.4 percent in the same quarter last year.

The employment outlook index, however, was slightly lower than the 9.4 percent registered in the third quarter of the year.

“The employments outlook for the first quarter remained positive, albeit slightly lower than the previous quarter but higher compared to a year ago,” Guerrero said.

This would result in a higher volume of business activity index to 27.9 percent in the fourth quarter of the year from 1.6 percent in the same quarter last year.

She added that all sectors particularly the construction sector remained optimistic for the first quarter of next year.

Business sentiment of the construction sector surged to 43 percent in the fourth quarter of the year from 9.1 percent in the same quarter last year followed by the services sector that surged to 40.3 percent from 3.9 percent.

The sentiment of the wholesale and retail trade sector, on the other hand, jumped to 32.3 percent from -5.1 percent while that of the industry sector improved to 26.3 percent from -1.3 percent.

Respondents attributed their improved optimism to the expected reconstruction and rehabilitation activities arising from the damages caused by tropical storm Ondoy and typhoon Pepeng as well as the continuing government infrastructure spending to help lift economic growth.

The administration of President Arroyo is set to complete a P330-billion Economic Resiliency Plan within the year aimed at boosting the slackening domestic output due to the global economic meltdown.

Economic managers through the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) see the country’s domestic output as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) growing between 2.6 percent and 3.6 percent next year from about 0.8 percent to 1.8 percent this year.

The country’s GDP growth plunged to 3.8 percent last year from 7.2 percent in 2007 due to the global slump caused by the financial crisis that started in the US.

For this quarter, respondent firms particularly in the services and industry sectors are generally enthusiastic due to the increase their volume of business activities and total orders in the last quarter of the year until the first quarter of next year.

The average capacity utilization of business enterprises improved slightly to 69.8 percent in the last quarter of the year from 68.8 percent in the third quarter. –Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star)