Jobless rate dips but underemployment rises

UNEMPLOYMENT fell slightly in April but labor experts said this was not necessarily good news as an increase in underemployment indicated a deterioration in the quality of available jobs.

The jobless rate dipped to 7.2%, an improvement from January’s 7.4% and the 8.0% recorded a year earlier, data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed. In absolute terms, the number of jobless Filipinos went down to 2.9 million from 3.1 million a year ago.

But the ranks of the underemployed — those seeking more work or an additional job — grew by 800,000 to 7.1 million Filipinos, a fifth of the 39.7 million-strong labor force in April.

“This shows that the quality of jobs has deteriorated,” said Rene E. Ofreneo of the University of the Philippines-School of Labor and Industrial Relations.

“Employment sometimes rises in times of crisis because people tend to accept even low-quality jobs in order to survive,” he added.

The employment rate increased to 92.8%, equivalent to 36.8 million working Filipinos and up from 35.4 million the previous year. The creation of 1.4 million jobs, however, does not necessarily mean that the employment situation has improved, Mr. Ofreneo said.

“Three million (jobless Filipinos) is still three million,” he said.

Vicente R. Leogardo, Jr., director general of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, agreed that the latest employment figures were no cause for celebration. “Many workers have become part of the informal sector, work only part-time, or are unpaid,” he said.

The NSO data showed a slight rise in the number of unpaid family workers (to 11.9% from 11.8%) and those who work less than 40 hours a week (to 37.1% from 36.6%).

“Many Filipinos have poor quality jobs. Some of them are even unpaid. And if you look at those who are unemployed, a big chunk of them are college graduates, young people in general,” UP economist Benjamin E. Diokno said.

Half of the jobless Filipinos are aged 15 to 24 while 43.5% have reached college, the NSO data showed.

Mr. Diokno also said an increase in agricultural employment was not a good sign. “A country on the way to industrialization should have fewer agriculture workers,” he said.

About 33.0% of employed Filipinos were in the agriculture sector, up from 32.5% last year. The majority of working Filipinos are in the services sector (51.7%, down from 52.0%), while 15.3% are in the industry sector, a decline from 15.5% previously.

Metro Manila and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) were the regions with the highest unemployment rates, at 11.6% and 10.0%, respectively.

Given prospects of lower economic growth, Mr. Leogardo said the employment situation remained bleak.

“Slower GDP growth will have an impact on the economy’s ability to create jobs,” he said. –CYRIL L. BONABENTE, Businessworld