ILO: Noy failed to create enough labor opportunities

Despite the recent frequent hype about the supposed improvement in the image of the country during the administration of President Aquino resulting in increased investments in the country and thus the creation of more jobs, Aquino fell short of creating labor opportuni-ties for Filipinos, the International Labor Organi-zation (ILO) said, warning that job generation must be dealt with at once if the country wants to sustain its economic growth.

Although employment growth in the Philippines has remained “positive,” the ILO, in its annual report, said some 40.2 Filipino workers remain in a state of “vulnerable unemployment.”

Sluggish employment rate, according to the ILO, stemmed from fluctuations in the country’s gross domestic product growth (GDP) or the total value of the country’s goods and services in 2011 and from back to back major tropical storms that damaged agricultural production that displaced large numbers of workers.

Scarcity of jobs at home and widespread poverty has driven many skilled and unskilled Filipinos to search for employment outside the country. Some, in their desperation, are trafficked abroad for low-paying jobs, making them vulnerable to labor abuses and physical maltreatment.

“Critical challenge remains the large number of workers who are in poor quality and low-paid jobs, with intermittent and insecure work arrangements and poor working conditions, the ILO said in its report, Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing A Deeper Jobs Crisis.

The report said the Philippines saw a slowdown in economic activity in 2011 but managed to maintain positive growth despite continuing global economic slowdown.

In October 2011, President Aquino introduced an economic stimulus package amounting to P72 billion or about $1.7 billion to cushion the impacts of global economic uncertainties due to the European debt crisis and uncertainties in the US financial markets.

The report also said that in the Philippines the trend of unemployed men than women will continue.

With an increasing world population, the world will urgently need around 600 million productive jobs for it to sustain growth and social cohesion, the ILO said.

“After three years of continuous crisis conditions in global labor markets and against the prospect of a further deterioration of economic activity, there is a backlog of global unemployment of 200 million,” the ILO said, adding that another 400 million are needed to absorb the estimated 40 million growth of the labor force each year.

The Global Employment Trends Report also said the world faces the additional challenge of creating decent jobs for the estimated 900 million workers living with their families below the $2 a day poverty line, mostly in developing countries, like the Philippines.

“Despite strenuous government efforts, the jobs crisis continues unabated, with one in three workers worldwide – or an estimated 1.1 billion people – either unemployed or living in poverty”, said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. “What is needed is that job creation in the real economy must become our number one priority”.

The ILO said the recovery that started in 2009 has been short-lived and that there are still 27 million more unemployed workers than at the start of the crisis.

There are nearly 29 million fewer people in the labor force now than would be expected based on pre-crisis trends, it said.

If these discouraged workers were counted as unemployed, then global unemployment would swell from the current 197 million to 225 million, and the unemployment rate would rise from 6 per cent to 6.9 per cent, the ILO warned.

The report paints three scenarios for the employment situation in the future, with the baseline projection showing an additional 3 million unemployed for 2012, rising to 206 million by 2016.

“If global growth rates fall below 2 per cent, then unemployment would rise to 204 million in 2012. In a more benign scenario, assuming a quick resolution of the euro debt crisis, global unemployment would be around 1 million lower in 2012,” it said.

Young people, on the other hand, continue to be among the hardest hit by the jobs crisis. Judging by the present course, the report says, “there is little hope for a substantial improvement in their near-term employment prospects.”

About 74.8 million youth aged 15-24 were unemployed in 2011, an increase of more than 4 million since 2007. Globally, young people are nearly three times as likely as adults to be unemployed.

The report said the world must create 600 million productive jobs over the next decade in order to generate sustainable growth and maintain social cohesion.

It cited a backlog in global employment of 200 million after three years of continuous crisis conditions in global labor markets and against the prospect of a further deterioration of economic activity.

Moreover, the report said more than 400 million new jobs will be needed over the next decade to absorb the estimated 40 million growth of the labor force each year.The Global Employment Trends Report also said the world faces the additional challenge of creating decent jobs for the estimated 900 million workers living with their families below the $2 a day povertyline, mostly in developing countries.

Despite strenuous government efforts, ILO director-general Juan Somavia said the jobs crisis continues unabated, with one in three workers worldwide, or an estimated 1.1 billion people either unemployed or living in poverty.

“What is needed is that job creation in the real economy must become our number one priority,” he said.

The Global Employment Trends calls for targeted measures to support job growth in the real economy, and warns that additional public support measures alone will not be enough to foster a sustainable recovery. “Policy-makers must act decisively and in a coordinated fashion to reduce the fear and uncertainty that is hindering private investment so that the private sector can restart the main engine of global job creation,” it said. It also warned that in times of faltering demand further stimulus is important and this can be done in a way that does not put the sustainability of public finances at risk. The report also called for fiscal consolidation efforts to be carried out in a socially responsible manner, with growth and employment prospects as guiding principles. –Michaela P. del Callar  with Danessa O. Rivera, Daily Tribune