Implementation of “bolder” policies is needed to further boost jobs growth in the country, according to local economists.
This, despite the improvement in the latest employment numbers released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which showed the country’s unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent, the first time it dropped to below 6 percent in a decade.
University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (Solair) Center for Labor Justice (CLJ) Director Rene Ofreneo said the country continues to struggle with the lack of sufficient and decent employment.
“Growth remains consumption-led with OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] and call center-BPO [business-process outsourcing employees] buying up condos, new offices and consumer goods. But growth remains uneven. Quality of jobs of many [are still] poor. [There is a] need [for] bolder policies for more and better jobs,” Ofreneo said.
University of Asia and the Pacific School of Economics Dean Cid Terosa said that, while the improvement in the latest jobs data can be attributed to the work put in by the Aquino administration, the efforts of the private sector must also be recognized.
Terosa, however, added that there is a need to study the quality of employment generated during the period. This is crucial since the country has been plagued by poor-quality jobs, as evidenced by high underemployment.
PSA data showed that underemployment nationwide was at 17.7 percent, including data from Leyte.
Underemployment, excluding data from Leyte, was at 17.6 percent, which was still an improvement from the 18.7 percent posted in October 2014.
“It is important to know who were employed and in which sectors. In other words, the quality of the decline must be studied,” Terosa said. “I believe that employment will be stronger in the fourth quarter and early next year because of the elections.”
In order to continue the reduction in the number of the unemployed and improvement in underemployment, Ateneo de Manila University School of Social Sciences Dean Fernando Aldaba said maintaining the health of the business environment and introducing reforms, such as those on income tax, are needed.
Aldaba said improving infrastructure, government spending and keeping prices stable are also necessary in boosting employment growth. Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan, for his part, said the government must sustain its public investments in education and training to improve labor productivity.
Balisacan added that efforts to improve employment generation in the agriculture sector are key to giving thousands of unemployed in this sector decent jobs.
He also stressed the importance of proper implementation of the Roadmap for Addressing the Impact of El Niño to prepare affected workers in the sector.
“We need to sustain public investments in education and training to improve labor productivity and capacities. At the same time, we need to sustain the momentum of fiscal spending, particularly in infrastructure development, to boost economic growth and employment in agriculture and industry sectors,” Balisacan said.
Preliminary results of the Labor Force Survey (LFS) in October showed that the employment rate improved to 94.4 percent, including data from Leyte. Excluding Leyte, the employment rate increased to 94.3 percent in October 2015, from 94 percent in October 2014.
Workers in the services sector comprised the largest proportion of the population who are employed. These workers made up 54.5 percent of the total employed in October.
Among them, those engaged in wholesale and retail trade or in the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles accounted for the largest percentage (35 percent) of workers in services sector. Workers in the agriculture sector comprised the second-largest group making up 29.6 percent of the total employed in October, while workers in the industry sector compose the smallest group registering 15.9 percent of the total employed.
The October LFS results also showed that in the industry sector, workers in the manufacturing subsector made up the largest group, accounting for 50.7 percent of workers in this sector; and those in construction, the second- largest group, represent 43.7 percent.