Despite local crises, RP jobless rate drops

DESPITE the series of crises that recently hit the country, the government reported on Tuesday that the number of jobless Filipinos slightly dropped as of January this year.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) said that the unemployment rate dropped to 7.3 percent, or about 2.8 million as of January from 7.7 percent, or 2.9 million unemployed in the same period last year.

In October last year, the jobless rate was 7.1 percent.

“The Philippine labor market posted a strong performance amid the global economic crisis, the lingering impacts of the destructive tropical cyclones late last year and the damage caused by El Niño phenomenon in the second half of 2009,” National Economic and Development Authority Officer in Charge Augusto Santos said in a statement.

Santos added that the election-related activities possibly contributed to the additional employment generation.

The number of employed persons in January was estimated at 36 million, up by 5 percent over last year’s estimate of 34.3 million.

This placed the current employment rate at 92.7 percent, which is not significantly different from the estimate reported last year, which was 92.3 percent.

Of the estimated 36 million employed persons in January, more than one-half, or 52.4 percent worked in the services sector.

Workers in the agriculture sector accounted for 32.8 percent of the total people employed while only 14.8 percent were in the industrial sector, with the manufacturing sub-sector making up the largest percentage.

Out of the estimated 60.2 million who are 15 years old and over in January 2010, around 38.8 million persons were reported to be in the labor force.

The percentage of the country’s labor force as of January which stood at 64.5 percent was higher by 1.2 percentage points from last year’s 63.3 percent.

“With the economy on the right track to economic rebound complemented by a good labor market situation, the Philippines must swiftly address challenges that derail its path towards becoming a globally competitive economy,” Santos said.

Infrastructure development

He added that to sustain the good start of the domestic labor market, the fast-tracking of rehabilitation and reconstruction of infrastructure must be pursued.

“This would immediately mitigate the impact of El Niño, and avert water and electricity distribution problems such as these are clear threats to decent and quality employment and livelihood,” Santos said.

He noted that the fiscal deficit must be managed through effective revenue collection and spending, and ensuring the budgets for training, education and promotion of entrepreneurship.

“We must also improve confidence in governance, and [have] minimized regulatory capture that impact adversely on the industries’ ability to produce quality jobs,” Santos said.

Benjamin Diokno, former Budget secretary during the Estrada administration, however, said that the overall labor market remains “grim.”

“While the number of unemployed dropped by 24,000, the number of underemployed soared by 1.7 million. The drop in unemployed was due to government-sponsored emergency employment program and public construction. What happens when the effect of fiscal stimulus fades?” Diokno said.

The NSO said that the number of underemployed persons in January was estimated at 7.1 million for an underemployment rate of 19.7 percent.

Around four million, or 57 percent of the total underemployed persons were reported as visibly underemployed or working less than 40 hours during the reference week.

He said that unemployment in the Philippines is the second highest in Asean-5, next only to Indonesia.The jobless rate in Singapore was 5 percent, Vietnam, 4.6 percent and Malaysia, 4 percent, Diokno added.

IBON paints bleak picture

The militant think-tank IBON Foundation said that 64 percent to 81 percent of the 39.4 million Filipinos who are in the age-bracket of the country’s labor force are either jobless or working in poor quality jobs, at least for last year.

“The country’s employment and quality of work was at its worst in 2009. Its true unemployment rate of around 11 percent counting 4.32 million jobless Filipinos puts the Philippines in the worst crisis of joblessness and of poor quality work in its history,” IBON reported.

The research group also disclosed that the average unemployment rate for the period of the year 2001 to 2009 is 11.2 percent, which is the country’s worst nine-year period of sustained high joblessness since 1956.

Its research data showed that unemployment rates were much lower in 1956 to 1960 (8 percent), 1961 to 1970 (7.3 percent), 1971 to 1980 (5.4 percent), 1981 to 1990 (10.2 percent) and 1991 to 2000 (9.8 percent).

“The estimated jobless figures grossly understate the seriousness of the country’s job crisis. Although statistics show that 35.06 million are employed, the figure actually includes 4.22 million ‘unpaid family workers’ and 12.16 million ‘own-account workers’ covering those in informal sector work,” IBON said.

The think-tank also said that 36.4 percent of jobs in 2009 were merely part-time.

IBON added that the next administration should focus on the generation of high-quality jobs and the employment of the proportion of the population who are either unemployed or underemployed.

“Amid record high unemployment and worst quality of work, the country’s employment situation remains the greatest challenge for the next administration,” it said. –DARWIN G. AMOJELAR Senior Reporter with report from Rommel C. Lontayao