ILO to PHL: Create more ‘decent’ jobs for young labor force

Countries in the Asia Pacific region, including the Philippines, should strengthen their efforts to create quality jobs for their young people, said a new report from the International Labor Organization.

According to the ILO’s Asia Pacific Labor Market Update, issued Monday (Manila time), the lingering economic crises in the US and the Eurozone and the declining growth of China and India continue to pose challenges for Asia Pacific economies, “particularly given their orientation towards exports and foreign direct investment.”

Under these circumstances, and also partly because of “the slow pace of structural change,” the problems of unemployment and vulnerable employment persist in the region.

“Of particular concern…is [the lack of] decent work for Asia’s many young women and men, as the region continues to be home to the largest young population in the world. Catering to their aspirations for decent work remains a challenge, more so in the face of declining economic growth,” said the report.

The ILO report also noted, “While relatively few workers in Asia are in open unemployment, many continue to work in vulnerable and precarious forms of work, where incomes are low or unstable and access to rights and benefits are very restricted.”

Slow progress in improving job quality

There is some good news for the Philippines, with the number of people in vulnerable employment declining slightly by 3.3 percent to 36.9 percent in Q3 2012.

The ILO defines vulnerable employment as unpaid family workers and own-account workers “who are less likely to benefit from safety nets that guard against loss of incomes during economic hardship.” People in vulnerable employment—usually those with low educational attainment—work in informal conditions, earn low wages and receive limited legal and social protection.

The report also said that around 70 per cent of working people in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam are employed informally in the non agricultural sector.

‘Significant strides’ in social reforms

There is still some more good news in the report, with the ILO noting that governments across Asia Pacific have begun to implement social protection measures as part of their policy agenda to mitigate the impact of the global slowdown and “to help rebalance growth towards greater domestic demand and away from an overdependence on exports.”

This has resulted in some “significant strides” by some countries in implementing social protection reforms.

The Philippines was lauded for two government initiatives: its conditional cash transfer program, which provides cash assistance to poor families that meet its conditions of proper child health and education and which was also recently extended to cover street families; and the widening of PhilHealth coverage.

“In the Philippines 85 per cent of the population is now covered by the government-owned health insurer” it said.

Waste of potential

However, the Philippines and the rest of region still have a long way to go. According to the report, about one in six young people in the labor force are unemployed in the Philippines, as well as in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and New Zealand. “[L]abor market prospects for youth in parts of the Asia Pacific region remained dim,” it said, citing a 17-percent youth unemployment rate in the Philippines as of the third quarter of 2012.

The underutilization of young people is a “waste of human resources and productive potential that can have devastating effects for societies, economies and political systems.” — BM, GMA News