‘Build, build, build’ credited for pushing construction employment to 4M jobs

Over 468,000 jobs pushed the number of those employed in the construction sector to over four million in April, the Department of Labor and Employment has said.

Citing the results of the Philippine Statistics Authority's April 2018 Labor Force Survey, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III credited the Duterte administration's infrastructure program for the increase.

“The construction sector is the largest contributor to employment among the industry subsections during the period and we believed the Build, Build, Build infrastructure program is the main driver of growth,” Bello said.

The Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) has said that growth in the industry sector largely came from construction and manufacturing.

"The construction sector likely benefitted from the recent surge in public construction, while employment in manufacturing was supported by upbeat investment in the sector where it is one of the country’s biggest recipient of foreign investment for the period April to November 2017," said the ILS.

DOLE said a Build, Build, Build team will launch on August 12  a job-matching portal at the SMX Convention Center. —Margaret Claire Layug/NB, GMA News