Unemployment higher among men than women, labor stats show

There are about 700,000 more men than women who are unemployed, Bureau of Labor and Employment statistics (BLES) showed.

“The 2011 Employment Situation” noted that “more than three out of every five unemployed were men.”

There were more than 1.772 million unemployed males last year, or 63 percent of the unemployment numbers.

Comparatively, there were 1.042 million unemployed women, equivalent to 37 percent of the total.

This has been the trend for the past three years, according to BLES data.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) noted these figures reflect a departure from statistics in the rest of Southeast Asian.

“Unemployment rates for women in the region continue to remain higher than for men, estimated at 5.1 percent for women in 2011 compared with 4.4 percent for men,” the ILO said in its “2012 Global Employment Trends” report.

“A number of countries in the region buck this trend, however, with men being more likely to be unemployed than women in the Philippines and Thailand,” the ILO added.

“We have to bear in mind that in some parts of the world, some occupations are concentrated for women, while some are concentrated for men,” ILO Philippines director Lawrence Jeff Johnson said Tuesday in an interview with GMA News Online.

However, Johnson also said “the differences [between employment rates for men and women] are ever so slight.”

“Some of those people who are unemployed have reached tertiary level education. They can afford to be unemployed,” Johnson added.

His assertion agreed with the BLES report, which noted 42 percent of unemployed persons are college graduates or undergraduates.

The ILO official also noted that while unemployment is higher among men than among women, “men are slightly higher in terms of wage and salary employment, while women are higher in vulnerable employment.”

Wage and salary workers, Johnson explained, are those protected by the Labor Code and who have access to health insurance and social security benefits.

Those in vulnerable employment, he said, are sari-sari store owners and street vendors — low productivity jobs — who are not protected by the Labor code and are not covered by insurance or social security.

ILO wants government to give vulnerable employees better jobs, Johnson said, adding that this can be achieved not only through an improved educational system but also programs like those offered by the Technical Education and Skill Development Authority, which enhance the employability of people with low skill sets. — VS/HS, GMA News