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Despite
a decline in the country’s unemployment rate and the
subsequent increase in the country’s employment,
economists continue to harp on the lack of quality jobs
in the country.
The
country’s unemployment rate declined to 7.4 percent in
January 2008 from 7.8 percent in January 2007, according
to data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO)
Tuesday.
The
decline in the unemployment rate was accompanied by a
slight increase in the employment rate to 92.6 percent
from 92.2 percent posted last year.
Action
for Economic Reforms (AER) coordinator Filomeno Sta. Ana
III said an important detail that should be carefully
examined is the fact that despite an increase in poverty
in the
Philippines,
employment increased.
Sta. Ana
said what is also important to note is that in terms of
the real sectors—agriculture, industry and
services—there is a disturbing fact that low-paying, if
at all, jobs are on the rise.
Agriculture only accounted for 35 percent of the entire
labor force in January 2008, which is an increase from
last year’s 34.7 percent. It is also worth noting that
industry’s share in jobs remained at 4.8 percent, the
same level it was last year.
“There
is a deterioration of quality employment. [The kind of
employment generated in the country are] not the type of
employment that will lift people out of poverty and
create income,” Sta. Ana said in a phone interview.
For his
part, University of Asia and the Pacific economist
professor Victor Abola said in a statement sent to the
BusinessMirror that the country’s employment figures
released by the government “fail to impress.”
Abola
said the country’s unemployment rate only declined since
the labor-participation rate dropped substantially to
63.4 percent in January this year from 64.8 percent in
January 2007. This, he said, translated to a labor force
that is supposed to have grown by only 3,000, or 0.0
percent, for the same period.
“In
terms of employment generation, the total net jobs
created for the whole year ending January 2008 was only
150,000, which was even lower than the corresponding
figure of 483,000 in October 2007, and definitely way
below the government’s target 1 million jobs a year,”
Abola said.
He also
agreed with Sta. Ana and said the type of net jobs
created were mostly accounted for by self-employed,
own-family and unpaid family workers, which offset the
drop of 492,000 in wage and salaried workers.
Abola
added that this is consistent with the industry
employment gains/losses data. Agriculture provided net
new 153,000 jobs, while industry (basically mining and
construction) added 22,000 slots at the same time that
the service sector was shedding 26,000 positions.
“The
strong peso continued to take its toll on the
manufacturing sector, which lost 88,000 jobs over a
one-year period, and 99,000 posts since October 2007.
These figures are hardly conducive to a sustained strong
growth,” Abola said.
Dr. Rene
Ofreneo, University of the Philippines School of Labor
and Industrial Relations Center for Labor Justice
director, told the BusinessMirror that the decline in
unemployment and increase in employment may be due to
several reasons.
He said
the high economic growth achieved by the country in 2007
of 7.3 percent may have already “kicked in” and created
a few more jobs for those in the labor force.
“Maybe
the high growth was able to translate to more jobs as
seen in the expansion of malls and the informal
economy,” Ofreneo said in a phone interview. He also
said another factor may be the lack of interest of
Filipinos to seek employment mainly because of the
low-quality jobs available.
He said
that based on the definition of the NSO, a Filipino is
not considered unemployed and is a member of the local
labor force if he/she is unemployed but is not looking
for work.
“Maybe
those being surveyed were discouraged workers,” Ofreneo
said.
The NSO
said there were a total of 33.7 million employed
Filipinos, higher than last year’s 33.55 million
workers. There were a total of 2.68 million unemployed
Filipinos, lower than last year’s 2.85 million.
Among
the regions, the National Capital Region had the highest
unemployment rate. It registered a two-digit
unemployment rate of 12.5 percent.
Males
had a higher unemployment rate of 7.8 percent compared
with females at 6.7 percent. The NSO added that for
every 10 unemployed, five, or 49.6 percent, were in the
age group 15 to 24 years, while three were in the age
group 25 to 34.
Around
39 percent of the unemployed had attained college level
and 33.5 percent were high school graduates. |
