More terminations than quits caused the decline in the number of employed Metro Manila workers in the construction sector in the second quarter of the year.
Data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that terminations in the construction sector in the National Capital Region (NCR) increased to 46.9 percent in the April to June period.
“In the second quarter of 2014, employment in large enterprises in Metro Manila fell to 0.88 percent compared with the 2.49-percent labor turnover rate posted a year ago. The decline was due mainly to job losses in the industry sector, particularly in construction,” the PSA’s Labor Turnover Survey (LTS) results stated.
The LTS showed that overall, employer-initiated or terminations reached 6.38 percent, while employee-initiated separations or quits were only at 4.21 percent.
Other sectors that posted high termination rates in the second quarter were education at 11.29 percent and mining and quarrying, 10.73 percent.
“More terminations than quits occurred in construction, private education and mining and quarrying,” the PSA said.
The PSA said the decline in employment during the period paralleled the country’s slower economic growth rate of 6.4 percent compared to 7.9 percent in the same period in 2013.
As a result of the high number of terminations in the construction sector in the second quarter, industry employment contracted 0.68 percent.
There was also a 0.38-percent contraction in the employment in the electricity, gas, steam and air- conditioning supply.
The LTS for the second quarter covered 921 large enterprises based in Metro Manila. The sample enterprises were drawn from the 2013 NCR List of Enterprises of the PSA, which was updated by the 2013 LTS sampling frame.
The LTS is a quarterly sample survey of enterprises conducted by the PSA since the third quarter of 2002.
The survey aims to capture “job creations” and “job displacements” in large business enterprises based in Metro Manila by collecting quarterly data on accessions and separations of workers.
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