Despite being the most optimistic in Southeast Asia, Filipinos remain concerned about maintaining work-life balance and job security in the next six months.
Based on the Consumer Confidence Index released by Nielsen, the top 3 concerns of Filipinos are work-life balance, job security and health in the next six months.
Compared to its neighbors in Southeast Asia, Filipinos were the only ones that cited work-life balance as their top concern.
Other workers in the region, particularly Indonesians, Malaysians, and Singaporeans cited work-life balance as their second and third top concern.
Job security, meanwhile, was among the top 3 concerns of workers in the region such as Filipinos, Thais, Vietnamese and Singaporeans.
Health, on the other hand, was a top concern among Filipinos, Indonesians, Vietnamese and Singaporeans.
Nielsen’s data showed that Filipino consumers are the most confident in Southeast Asia and showed the second highest optimism globally in the second quarter with an index score of 122, surpassing the global consumer confidence score of 96 points.
Data also showed that the Philippines was the only market where consumer sentiment increased in the past quarter, gaining seven points to rise to a score of 122—the country’s highest level on record.
“An upsurge of revenues from the strong business-process outsourcing industry, an upswing in the construction sector, and strong consumption spending levels are fueling growth in the country,” said Stuart Jamieson, managing director, Nielsen Philippines.
Filipinos, Nielsen data showed, were also optimistic about local job prospects and an increase in their personal finances in the next 12 months.
Data showed that Filipinos optimism on local job prospects increased two percentage points to 75 percent from the previous quarter.
Optimism on personal finances, meanwhile, increased four percentage points to 81 percent from the first quarter.
Filipino consumers along with their Southeast Asian counterparts continue to be among the world’s most conscientious savers.
Consumers in Vietnam are the biggest savers globally (73 percent), consumers from the Philippines (72 percent) and Indonesia (69 percent) rank second and third and those from Singapore and Thailand (66 percent) tie in fifth place while consumers from Malaysia take the sixth spot globally.
“With an increasingly buoyant consumer confidence, consumer spending continues to get momentum, including discretionary spending particularly on vacations and out-of-home entertainment,” Jamieson said.
The Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index measures perceptions of local job prospects, personal finances and immediate spending intentions among more than 30,000 respondents with Internet access in 60 countries.
Consumer confidence levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism.