Number of ‘endo’ workers on the decline – PSA

By Samuel P. Medenilla, Manila Bulletin, Nov 4, 2017

Even before President Rodrigo Roa Duterte initiated the government crackdown against illegal forms of contractualization last year, the number of non-regular workers nationwide has already started to decline, according to a new report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its latest Integrated Survey on Labor and Employment (ISLE), PSA said the number of non-regular workers as of June 2016 declined by around 8 percent to 1,190,697 from 1,335,673 in 2014.

The bulk or 687,206 of non-regular workers last year were from the service sector particularly in the administrative and support services; wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles.

The industry sector came in second with 447,320 non-regular workers, while the agriculture sector had the least number with only 56,170.

Non-regular worker is the collective term used by PSA to describe casual workers, contractual/project-based workers, seasonal workers, probationary workers, and apprentices.

Incidentally, ISLE showed the number of regular workers grew from 2,538,081 in 2014 to 2,613,331 in 2016.

The ISLE survey is conducted by PSA every two years. The latest edition of ISLE covers PSA’s data for 2015 to 2016.

The number of non-regular workers, specifically those under contractual arrangement, is expected to further decrease in the coming years after the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) adopted stricter regulations for contractualization.

The campaign involves imposing additional requirements for contractors and subcontractors as well as weeding out illegal forms of contractualization.

Last September, DOLE reported its campaign has already benefited 116,000 contractual workers.

Out of the beneficiaries, 67,927 have already been regularized by their employers, while the remaining 48,847 are set be regularized in the coming months.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) attributed the slight increase in the unemployment rate last July to DOLE’s new policy on contractualization. It explained some firms may have chosen not to retain their contractual workers out of fear they may be forced to regularize them by DOLE.