Unemployment

Last week, I explained the Philippine “labor surplus” story by referring to the roles played by (a) high population growth rate; (b) misdirected economic nationalism; (c) the long process of protectionist policies promoting import substitution; and (d) the high welfare standards pursued by government intervention in the labor market.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Tourism (DOT) has set a higher tourism employment target of 7.4 million by 2016 from earlier target of 6.8 million due to the projected improvement in the country’s domestic tourism in the near-term, official documents showed.

As discussed in last week’s column, the impressive economic growth of East Asian countries like Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the three ASEAN countries of Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia could be explained by the labor surplus model of growth. The phrase “labor surplus” is merely descriptive and has no disapproving or judgmental…

MANILA, Philippines – The number of unemployed Filipinos rose by one million in the first quarter of the year, a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said.

LACK of jobs remains one of the country’s biggest problems, the World Bank has said, and even if the economy continues to grow at its current pace, some 12.4 million Filipinos would still be underemployed or without jobs by 2016.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has acknowledged before a leaders’ meeting at the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva that the country’s robust economic growth, highlighted by the 7.8-percent expansion of gross domestic product in the first quarter, is not creating enough decent jobs.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine economy is fast improving. But why is unemployment worsening? According to National Economic and Development Authority assistant director-general Rosemarie Edillon, the hot weather that consequently resulted in the drop in farm sector jobs had something to do with the 7.5-percent unemployment rate last April.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – The unemployment rate in the Philippines rose to 7.5 percent in April as 600,000 farm workers lost their jobs owing to adverse weather conditions, according to data issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO) today.

(Updated 12:17) The ranks of Filipino youth working part-time is increasing, raising concerns over the quality of employment for those joining the job market for the first time, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Thursday.

Jeany Rose Callora left her home on the Philippine island of Negros last year to work at a soft- drinks factory in Manila, hoping to earn money for college. When her contract ended six months later, she said she couldn’t get another job in Southeast Asia’s fastest growing economy.

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.

(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.

In a statement to the IMFC in Washington, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder says international policy response efforts are not matching growing global concern over growth, job creation and poverty reduction.

The country’s unemployment rate in January stood at 7.1 percent, improving just a little from the 7.2 percent registered in the same month last year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Friday reported.

While unemployment in different parts of the world started to rise again five years after the global financial crisis erupted, the number of Filipinos out of job continue to decline, International Labour Organisation noted on Tuesday.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Record unemployment and fraying social welfare systems in southern Europe risk creating a new divide in the continent, the EU warned Tuesday, when figures showed joblessness across the 17 EU countries that use the euro hit a new high.

THE JOBLESS RATE eased to 6.8% in October from July’s 7.0% but the ranks of the unemployed remained the same, which analysts described as a failure of economic growth to translate to more jobs.

People who have recently lost their jobs are more likely to suffer a heart attack than their employed peers, in some cases running a risk as high as 35 percent, according to a US study.

UNEMPLOYMENT grew in the third quarter, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in a new report, reversing a steep fall seen three months earlier. Underemployment surgesSharp drop in jobless rateJobless rate eases to 7.2%2.72M Filipinos jobless in Oct.- survey

Despite a 5.9-percent economic growth in the second quarter, labor market conditions in the country have not improved, according to a World Bank research note. The October 2012 Job Trends note issued by the World Bank’s Human Development Network said that labor markets in four East Asian countries, namely, the Philippines, China, Thailand and Indonesia…

Unemployment 30 mn higher than before crisis: ILO TOKYO – There are now 30 million more people without jobs around the world than before the global financial crisis began, the head of the International Labor Organization said in remarks published Friday.

MANILA – (UPDATED 11:19 a.m.) The number of unemployed Filipinos dropped slightly in July, but those looking for additional jobs were on the rise, the National Statistics Office said on Tuesday. In a report, the NSO said the jobless rate fell to 7 percent of the country’s labor force, or to 2.82 million Filipinos, from…

MANILA, Philippines—Despite the respectably high economic growth rate that the country registered in the second quarter, the Philippines has the worst unemployment rate in Southeast Asia, independent think tank Ibon Foundation has pointed out.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has sounded the alarm on the increasing number of part-time workers or underemployed Filipinos—7.312 million of them now—and of jobless Filipino youth—1.450 million of them at present.

How healthy is the Philippine job market? Its condition has remained weak, and may have even deteriorated slightly, from where it was a year ago, according to the April 2012 Labor Force Survey (LFS) results. While the unemployment rate eased slightly to 6.9% this April from 7.2% a year ago, the overall quality of jobs…

A research firm shows a big concern on the employment of Filipinos, particularly the youth, which are the most affected segment of the population by the global financial crisis and availability of jobs.

MANILA, Philippines—The number of jobless Filipinos remained at about 2.9 million as of January, but when compared year-on-year, the unemployment rate actually eased to 7.2 percent from 7.4 percent in the same month of 2011, the National Statistics Office said Thursday.

THE number of unemployed Filipinos has increased, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey said on Thursday. The survey results, which were first published in BusinessWorld, showed that unemployment has jumped to 24 percent—or 9.7 million Filipinos—from the 20.2 percent recorded three months earlier, when another survey was conducted.

AT least 2.8 million Filipinos, or 7 percent of the population 15 years old and over, were unemployed in 2011, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said in its Labor Force Survey on Wednesday.

There are about 700,000 more men than women who are unemployed, Bureau of Labor and Employment statistics (BLES) showed. “The 2011 Employment Situation” noted that “more than three out of every five unemployed were men.”