The 6.1-percent economic expansion in 2014 also translated to a better jobs picture, with an additional 1 million Filipinos gaining employment last year. The quality of employment in the Philippines, however, remained a problem.
In the preliminary data of the 2014 Employment Situation report, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the number of employed Filipinos increased to 37.3 million in 2014, from 36.3 million in 2013.
However, the growth in the number of employed Filipinos was driven by part-time employment. Part-time employment rose sharply by 9.1 percent, or 1.1 million, while persons with full-time jobs declined by 227,000 in 2014.
“Amid the expansion, the quality of employment remained a key challenge. Employment growth this
year was largely driven by the rise in part-time employment [9.1 percent] alongside the increase in the number of self-employed persons and unpaid family workers,” the PSA said.
“As a result, the mean hours of work was down [-2.4 percent] from last year, which parallels the slowdown in the country’s gross domestic product [GDP] in 2014,” the PSA added.
The highest increase in part-time work was noted among farm, forestry and fishery sector, where there was an addition of 339,000 part-time workers; service workers and shop and market sales workers, 185,000; and
clerks, 165,000.
Most of the increase in part-time work was observed in Region 4A, or Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), where there was an addition of 231,000 part-time workers.
Other regions where the most increase in part-time work was observed were parts of the Yolanda Corridor namely, Region 6, or Western Visayas, and Region 7, or Central Visayas, where there was an increase of 147,000 and 114,000 part-time workers, respectively.
Meanwhile, the country’s underemployment rate stood at 18.4 percent in 2014. This was only a 0.6-percentage point decline from the 19 percent posted in 2013.
The PSA said the underemployed are those employed Filipinos who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present jobs, or to have additional jobs, or to have new jobs with longer working hours.
“The decline was accompanied by reduction in the total number of underemployed persons by 42,000 to 6.9 million,” the PSA said.
Underemployment was highest in the agriculture sector, with an underemployment rate of 25.3 percent, higher than the 20 percent posted in the industry sector and 14.1 percent posted in the services sector.
The PSA noted that between 2013 and 2014, underemployment increased only in the industry sector with an addition of 68,000 underemployed Filipinos in the sector.
Underemployment was at the highest rate in Region 5, or the Bicol region, with an 34.9 percent, followed by Region 10, or Northern Mindanao, 25.7 percent; and Caraga, 25.2 percent.
The lowest underemployment rate was recorded in the National Capital Region, or Metro Manila, at 11.1 percent, followed by Region 2, or Cagayan Valley, 11.2 percent; and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 11.7 percent.
“Between 2013 and 2014, underemployment rate improved in 12 regions, most notably in Region 1 [-4.0 percentage points or ppt] and Region 4B [-3.0 ppt]. Underemployment rate worsened in Region 7 [+3.3 ppt] and Region 11 [+2.0 ppt],” the PSA said. “Little changes were observed in the rest of the regions.”
The PSA said the figures cited in the report are preliminary and, unless indicated, represent the average of the four rounds of the Labor Force Survey (LFS) conducted in the months of January, April, July and October.
The estimates for both periods under review exclude Region 8, or Eastern Visayas, for comparability. The January 2014 excluded estimates for Region 8 because the LFS was not conducted in this region as a consequence of Supertyphoon Yolanda. For the subsequent rounds, the LFS was not conducted for Leyte province.