THE NUMBER OF FILIPINOS optimistic about the country’s employment situation increased in the third quarter, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in its latest survey.
According to the survey, the “unemployment index” improved to +66.1 percent in the third quarter, probably due to reports that the worst of the global economic turmoil was over and so its impact on job creation in the country would ease.
The unemployment index stood at +73.6 percent in the second quarter, and at +76.1 percent in the third quarter of last year.
The central bank computes the index by subtracting the number of respondents who said they were expecting the unemployment rate to increase in the months ahead from those who said they expected it to decline.
A positive unemployment index means that there were more respondents who believed that the country’s jobless rate would rise in the coming months against those who believed it would drop.
Rosabel Guerrero, director at the central bank’s economics and statistics department, said that while the unemployment index remained in the positive territory in the third quarter—which means that the pessimists outnumbered the optimists as far as the employment situation was concerned—it was the lowest since the second quarter of 2008.
The decline in the unemployment index means that the number of Filipinos believing the employment conditions will improve has increased, although still outweighed by the number of Filipinos thinking that things could get worse.
Guerrero said the number of pessimists have been consistently surpassing the number of optimists since the quarterly survey was first conducted by the BSP in 2007. She said more Filipinos tend to have a negative outlook on employment.
She said the fact that the number of pessimists had declined was an encouraging sign. The drop in the unemployment index could be attributed to the easing of the economic turmoil experienced worldwide.
The unemployment index peaked in the third quarter of last year at +76.1 percent at the height of the global economic crisis.
During that time, many Filipino households, especially those dependent on overseas remittances, were concerned about layoffs by companies based in recession-hit countries like the United States, Taiwan, Japan and those in Europe.–Michelle V. Remo, Philippine Daily Inquirer
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