DOLE: More HS graduates employed than college degree holders

MANILA, Philippines – More high school graduates are now employed compared to those who earned college degrees owing to the dominance of low skilled jobs in the country, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

Records from the DOLE-Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) showed that high school graduates comprised the bigger bulk or 40 percent of the 19 million salaried workers nationwide.

Based on BLES data, there were 700,000 more high school graduates than the 7.1 million wage and salaried workers who completed tertiary education.

It also indicated that there were over 12 million male wage and salaried workers. The figure is way above the seven million women employed in various private and public establishments.

Labor officials defined wage and salaried workers as those who work and receive regular and predetermined pay. Other status of employment include employer in own family-operated business, self-employed without any paid employee, and unpaid family worker in own business.

According to DOLE, wage and salaried workers comprised more than half of the estimated 36 million employed people in the country.

A majority or 74 percent of the wage and salaried workers were employed in private establishments, and 73 percent hold permanent jobs.

DOLE also reported that the top five occupations in the country were laborer and unskilled workers, service workers, plant and machine operators, officials of government and special interest and agricultural workers.

Meanwhile, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has called on private firms to employ more poor students and out-of-school youth who deserve to go to school.

Baldoz said private companies, as a part of their corporate social responsibility, should support the government’s Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) and help in bringing education to poor but deserving students.

She noted that in Northern Mindanao, close to a thousand poor students were provided employment during the summer vacation under SPES and have received over P1.7 million in salaries that enabled them to go back to school.

The labor chief expressed confidence that the SPES program would also enhance the employability of the young student workers when they finally complete their education and eventually joined the labor force. –Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)