Lack of decent pay continues to hound PHL labor market — ILO

Despite steady economic growth, the Philippine job market has yet to generate jobs that would provide a significant number of its workers decent pay.

According to the annual report of the International Labour Organization (ILO) titled, “Global Employment Trends 2012: preventing a deeper jobs crisis,” 40.2 percent of Filipino workers are in a state of “vulnerable employment.”

“The 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,” ILO said.

The Geneva-based ILO also noted that men are more likely to be unemployed than women in the Philippines.

“Employment growth has remained positive, although it is volatile as a result of fluctuations in GDP growth stemming in part from major tropical storms that damaged agricultural production and displaced large number of workers,” the ILO said.

PHL unemployment slips

The latest Labor Force Survey of the government showed that unemployment rate in the Philippines slipped to 6.4 percent in October 2011 from 7.1 percent in October 2010.

Underemployed persons, or those seeking to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job or a new job with longer working hours, were estimated at 19.1 percent, a marginal improvement from 19.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the ILO warned that the global economy needs to create 600 million productive jobs over the next decade to sustain economic growth and maintain social cohesion.

“After three years of continuous crisis 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,” it said.

The report added that more than 400 million new jobs will be needed over the next decade to absorb an estimated 40 million new workers each year.

The challenge: Decent jobs of 900M workers

Another challenge, however, is for the global economy to generate decent jobs for the estimated 900 million workers living with their families below the $2 a day poverty line, mostly in developing countries.

Juan Somavia, ILO director-general, said the unabated global crisis has further deteriorated the jobs market.

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

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

The fact that economies are not generating enough employment is reflected in the employment-to-population ratio (the proportion of the working-age population employed), which suffered the largest decline on record between 2007 (61.2 per cent) and 2010 (60.2 per cent).

Future of employment

The report painted three scenarios for the employment situation in the future. The baseline projection shows 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.

Young people 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.

Global Employment Trends 2012 noted that 74.8 million youth aged 15 to 24 were unemployed in 2011, an increase of more than 4 million since 2007. It added that young people are nearly three times as likely as adults to be unemployed globally.

The global youth unemployment rate, at 12.7 percent, remains a full percentage point above the pre-crisis level, the report added. — CMA/VS, GMA News