ILO urges focus on decent, productive jobs to foster inclusive growth

MANILA – The International Labor Organization (ILO) has recommended to the Philippine government to focus on the creation of decent and productive jobs in order to foster inclusive growth.

In a statement released during the Tapatan media forum at Aristocrat Restaurant in Manila, Lawrence Jeff Johnson, director of ILO Country Office for the Philippine, said that the economy has experienced robust rates of growth and made important gains in the labor market in recent years.

“However, more focus on decent and productive jobs is necessary to foster inclusive growth,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that the ILO report on Philippine Employment Trends 2015 stressed that it is vital to ensure that growth translates into a better labor market outcome, including shares of vulnerable employment and working poverty.

“It is not the level of economic growth, but how we achieve the growth that impacts people’s lies and society’s,” Johnson said.

Among those recommendations in ILO report to support the creation of quality jobs and poverty reduction are:

Facilitating a greater role of investment, including through better infrastructure and channeling remittances.
Mainstreaming productive employment in policy efforts such as the industry road maps.
Investing in the development of relevant skills for labor force in the Philippines.
Strengthening the social protection framework to mitigate the adjustment costs of structural changes that the economic development of the country requires.
Enhancing the labor market information system to ensure policy decisions are informed and coherent.
Johnson said that the ILO’s Philippine Employment Trends 2015 report finds relatively high economic growth rates in recent years, reaching 7.2 percent in 2013 and 6.1 percent in 2014.

He added that the report highlighted that vulnerable employment, a measure of the quality of employment, declined from 43.5% in 2008 to 38.3% in 2013. Likewise, poverty rates among all Filipino workers saw a modest decline to 21.9% in 2012 from 22.9% in 2006.

Employment in the Philippines reached 38.1 million in 2013, a sizeable increase of 4 million since 2008. The labor force also saw a faster growth since 2008 among women (13.6%) compared to that of men (10.1%).

Johnson said that amidst robust economic growth and positive trends in the labor market, the Philippines was hit by major disasters and crises which have disrupted the local economy and affected key industries.

“These natural calamities and crises destroy jobs, livelihood and other sources of income, and often reverse recent achievements and progress made at the individual, community and national levels. To build back, it is crucial to put decent work and livelihoods at the forefront of recovery after the disaster,” Johnson said.

Under the study, Johnson also said the youth employment rate declined slightly from 17.4% in 2008 to 16.1 percent in 2013.

“However, 1.4 million young people account for one-half of the total employment and are almost three times more likely than their adult counterparts to be unemployed.”

“The unemployment challenge is primarily a youth phenomenon, which includes those who are relatively educated in search for better options,” Johnson said.

Decent employment remains a top priority in both the Philippines’ and international development goals, Johnson said.

“Full and productive employment and decent work for all currently is proposed as a Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by the United Nations,” Johnson explained. –Ernie Reyes, InterAksyon.com