Monthly Archives: May 2013

UPDATE 11 – 10:47 p.m.) A power failure hit Metro Manila and a wide swathe of Luzon today as six power plants shut down, according to government and the country’s privately-run transmission monopoly.

MANILA, Philippines – A total of 1,089 Filipinos have been diagnosed for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during the first three months of 2013, the Department of Health (DOH) revealed Monday.

MANILA, Philippines – In just a day, more than 20,000 jobseekers nationwide have found new jobs, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the nationwide job fairs held last May 1, Labor Day, resulted in the on-the-spot hiring of 20,905 out of 127,880 applicants. “The number of applicants…

PH ranks 106th on list of best places to be a mother MANILA – The Philippines is among the worst places in Southeast Asia to be a mother, according to an annual report of Save the Children released on Tuesday.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has forged a partnership agreement with stakeholders in the business process outsourcing industry to advance the interest of about 700,000 BPO workers around the country, the group said in a press release yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The International Labor Organization (ILO) said about 90 percent of Filipinos are at risk of acquiring heart diseases, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and kidney ailments. These are among the ten leading causes of death among Filipinos.

The Labor Department on Saturday expressed alarm over the rising cases of HIV and AIDS among Filipino workers.

MORE than two years after a Congressional fact-finding committee concluded that Saudi Arabia is a country unfit to receive Filipino domestic workers, the government is still reviewing all labor policies and agreements with regards to the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Kingdom.

MANILA, Philippines – Unemployment is not as bad as some surveys have shown, according to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.

It appears to be a paradox. The Philippine economy is growing, but so are the unemployed. Social Weather Stations (SWS) data shows an increase in the number of unemployed in the country by 1 million between December 2012 to March 2013, a mere four months.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – The Aquino administration assured the public that it has taken significant steps to deter extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, a Palace official said today.

MANILA, Philippines – On the 20th World Press Freedom Day today, the Philippines isn’t faring well in terms of media freedom.

(Financial Times) — The world’s heading economies set an design on Saturday to boost expansion and jobs during a finish of a weekend of high-level meetings, yet undermined their ambitions with neatly incompatible views of a required policies.

The number of self-employed Filipinos is continuously increasing, according to year-on-year data from the Social Security System (SSS). From 19.35 percent in 2009, the rate increased by 0.34 percent to 19.69 percent in 2010 before becoming 20.06 percent in 2011.

MANILA, Philippines – More and more foreigners are buying residential condominiums in Metro Manila, according to real estate service company Jones Lang LaSalle.

HIV AND AIDS. The DOH said more than 1,000 cases of HIV or AIDS in the Philippines was reported within the first quarter of 2013.HIV AND AIDS. The DOH said more than 1,000 cases of HIV or AIDS in the Philippines was reported within the first quarter of 2013.

MANILA — Instead of raising the minimum wage, the government, employers and workers should work on improving the productivity of employees.

(Updated 7:19 p.m.) Unemployment continued to be the fly in the ointment that is the recent upswing in the Philippine economy, based on a new survey by pollster Social Weather Stations.

May 1 is often celebrated with parades and labor rejoicing in many countries. These provide symbolic, if plastic, events extolling the achievements and aspirations of labor. In the past, where communist governments ruled, the day was a parade of state power in the name of labor. In our country, May 1 is a day when…

The problem with job creation is that everyone is talking about it but nothing really gets done that’s palpable. Government, labor unions and private sector business all have said something about the importance of job creation and somehow the problem remains formidable.

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino has rejected a majority of the proposals of labor organizations, including tax exemption for minimum wage earners.

Want to earn quickly? Apply for a job in call centers. According to the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE), a call center agent is the hottest job in the Philippines with supply unable to match the demand.

More than 215 million children worldwide are working, and over half of them are involved in hazardous jobs, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a new report.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has about 5.5 million child laborers (from five to 17 years old) with nearly three million of them doing hazardous tasks, a 2011 survey on children release by the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed.

Mesothelioma incidence rate steady The use of asbestos within the United States has been reduced dramatically in recent decades, but the incidence of mesothelioma cancer has remained stubbornly and hauntingly steady.

NEW DELHI – The world economy is still not growing fast enough to generate jobs for tens of millions who have become unemployed but it is strengthening gradually, a top International Monetary Fund official said Wednesday.