Unemployment

DESPITE the series of crises that recently hit the country, the government reported on Tuesday that the number of jobless Filipinos slightly dropped as of January this year.

The true unemployment gap in the Philippines is about 15 million able-bodied Filipinos that include the totally jobless, those who are holding part-time jobs during some periods of the year and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) whose work contract have expired, Dr. Fernando Aldaba, former dean of the Ateneo School of Economics, said.

THE country’s latest employment statistics again presented a mixed-picture and a policy paradox: While the economy generated more jobs in October, the unemployment rate nevertheless still worsened, the National Statistics Office reported Tuesday.

The jobless situation in the Philippines was likely to worsen this year and next year because of the trade contraction resulting from the global crisis, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap).

The unemployment rate jumped more sharply than expected in July to 7.6 percent, with 2.9 million Filipinos out of work, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s unemployment rate slipped to 7.5 percent in April from 7.7 percent in January despite the economy shrinking at its fastest pace in two decades in the first three months of the year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines–With the global recession deepening at an unprecedented pace, the International Labor Organization has predicted that the number of unemployed in Asia will grow between 9 million and 26 million this year.

MANILA, Philippines – Unemployment among adult Filipinos reached a new record high of 34.2 percent in the last three months, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported yesterday.

STO. TOMAS, Pangasinan, Philippines – President Arroyo has ordered economic managers to study the proposal of Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto for the government to set up a fund to extend temporary unemployment insurance to workers who lose their jobs, with money to be provided by the Social Security System (SSS) and the national government.

MANILA, Philippines – About 11 million Filipino adults or 27.9 percent of the adult labor force are unemployed, a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The employment problem, which is expected to worsen next year, will be eased if the government opens the country’s service sector, the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines Inc. (AmCham) said.

One in four college students is likely to end up jobless after graduation, despite government assurances that lots of jobs exist, an independent research group reported yesterday.