Schools, hotels have most job openings

MANILA, Philippines - Private schools, mining and quarrying, and hotels and restaurants produced the most job openings last year, amid a general slowdown in the jobs market that has persisted since 2005, a report from the Labor department said. The three sectors reported the highest job opening rate based on a survey of 500 large companies in Metro Manila, data from the regular Labstat Updates of the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics showed. Private education reported a 7.93% job opening rate, followed by mining and quarrying with 4.99%, and hotels and restaurants with 2.21%. Overall, the country’s job opening rate in 2007 was 1.21%, lower than 1.32% in 2006 and the average 1.29% for the past five years. The job opening rate is considered a measure of the tightness of the labor market, indicating the availability of unfilled jobs or unmet labor demand during a given period. The rate is the percentage of job openings to total employment and job openings. It is an indicator of the economy’s ability to create jobs but could also "mean the existence of skill or labor shortage as more employers find it difficult to fill up their vacancies," the bureau said. Sectors that reported a job opening rate of more than 1% in 2007 were transport, storage, and communications (1.96%); wholesale and retail trade (1.45%); and financial intermediation (1.11%). The lowest rates were recorded in agriculture, fishery, and forestry and health and social work (0.03%). Other industries with job opening rates below 1% were manufacturing; electricity, gas, and water supply; construction; real estate, renting and business services; and community, social and personals service activities. The overall trend increased gradually from 2003 to 2005 but and dipped slightly thereafter. The average annual job opening rate rose gradually to 1.33% in 2005 from 1.26% in 2003 and 1.31% in 2004. The rate, however, fell slightly to 1.32% in 2006 and 1.21% in 2007. "Over the period, the quarter-to-quarter movement of the data series exhibited a highly volatile pattern which indicates the presence of seasonality," the bureau said. Based on the five-year survey data, job opening rates tended to peak during the first and second quarters and decline during the third and fourth quarters. From 2003 to 2005, most of the job openings were produced by the service sector. "The subsector that posted the highest average job opening rates over the five-year period were wholesale and retail trade (1.96%), financial intermediation (1.84%), and real estate, renting and business services (1.61%)," the report said. High rates were also recorded in transport, storage and communications (1.42%) and other community, social and personal service activities (1.44%). But manufacturing, which had the largest work force among industries covered in the survey yielded a job opening rate of only 0.57%. "Very low opening rates" were also observed in agriculture, fishery and forestry (0.13%), and construction (0.45%). "Over the years, the job opening rates increased in several sectors with the largest gains posted in wholesale and retail trade, financial intermediation, and transport, storage and communications," the bureau said. - BusinessWorld