PHL unemployment rate rises to 5% in Oct. —PSA

 

Unemployment rate in the Philippines was up at 5.0 percent in October this year from 4.7 percent in 2016, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed on Tuesday.

Areas with the highest unemployment rates are Ilocos Region (8.2 percent), National Capital Region (6.1 percent) and Central Luzon (6.0 percent), data showed.

Among the unemployed individuals, 64.2 percent were males while 15- to 24- year olds comprised 43.9 percent of the jobless and 25- to 34- year olds comprised 28.9 percent.

In terms of educational attainment, 20.4 percent of the unemployed were college graduates and 14.1 percent were college undergraduates. The PSA said 30.6 percent were those who completed junior high school.

The employment rate, meanwhile, slipped by 0.3 percentage point to 95.0 percent from 95.3 in the same comparable period.

PSA noted the following regions registered the lowest employment rates: Ilocos Region (91.8 percent), NCR (93.9 percent), and Central Luzon (94.0 percent).

Workers in the services sector (57.0 percent) comprised the largest proportion of the employed followed by those in the agriculture sector (25.0).

Workers in the industry sector made up the smallest group at 18.1 percent of the total employed, PSA said.

On the other hand, the underemployment rate dropped to 15.9 percent from 18.0 percent.

According to PSA, the underemployed are “... persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours.”

“Underemployed persons who work for less than 40 hours in a week are called visibly underemployed persons. They accounted for 53.9 percent of the total underemployed in October 2017 and 54.1 percent in October 2016,” Assistant Secretary Romeo Recide, who is also the deputy national statistician and PSA’s officer-in-charge, said in a report on results of the October 2017 Labor Force Survey.

“By comparison, the underemployed persons who worked for 40 hours or more in a week made up 44.8 percent.

“By sector, 47.9 percent of the underemployed worked in the services sector, while 32.6 percent were in the agriculture sector. Those in the industry sector accounted for 19.5 percent,” Recide noted.

In a separate statement, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) claimed that the country’s working agenda is currently “moving forward” as shown in the underemployment rate.

The underemployment rate represents an estimated 893,000 less underemployed workers.

“The lower underemployment rate and the higher proportion of wage and salary workers indicate improvement in the quality of employment in the country,” NEDA Secretary General Ernesto Pernia said.

“Regular conduct of job fairs and provision of livelihood assistance have contributed to the improvement of underemployment, especially in areas outside of the National Capital Region. This is a good indicator that our efforts in the lagging regions are starting to take effect,” he said.

Pernia emphasized the importance of monitoring the agriculture sector which accounts for 25 percent of the country’s employment rate.

The NEDA chief wanted to ensure that agricultural workers are “highly productive and resilient and are increasingly linked to the industry and services sectors.”

NEDA also noted the need to pursue policies that increase labor force participation of women, including:

• full implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Law

• improved access and affordability of child care services

• policies that promote work-life balance, including a regulatory framework allowing part-time work and work-from-home even in the formal sector

• provision of re-training services for women returning to the workforce

• enhancing maternal and paternal benefits

• improved access to entrepreneurial opportunities for women

“Agriculture sector is very vulnerable to risks including natural and man-made hazards. The government should strengthen early warning systems and social protection programs for the sector to ensure resiliency of agricultural communities,” Pernia said. — VDS, GMA News