More than half of Negros Occidental's workforce is jobless

BACOLOD CITY - Around 74 percent of the total workforce in Negros Occidental, pegged at 228,000, are "jobless and wage deficient." Records from the City Population and Development Office (CPDO), City Planning Office (CPO) and the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) revealed that of the 74 percent, 43 percent or 98,700 are underemployed or oddjobbers, most of whom are self-employed or are into family-based minor businesses, while 31 percent or 70,664 are unemployed or continues to look for employment. Qualitative description offered by official publications on these statistics described the situation as "unstable". The remaining 26 percent of the employed, meanwhile, are described to have "no trend or prospect of getting better". The 26 percent or 58,636 are employed in 21,000-registered businesses as of end of 2007. But big portion of these employed are probationary and contractual and not many are considered regulars. Of the employed, 30,028 are in the service sector (i.e. schools, government offices, communication and transportation sector, and other utility services); commerce and trade accounts for 3,554, while processing/manufacturing 2,200. The remaining 22,854 employed are shared by the agri-aqua farms sub-sectors ( i.e. rice, sugar, fishing, fishponds, vegetables, orchards and coconut), which show that actual arable lands account for more than 60 percent of the total land in Bacolod. City Population officer Tonette Tejario attributed this to rapid population growth and migration as against economic growth, adding: "The city has 16,945 hectares land area, of which 9,101 hectares are agricultural, accounting for more than 80 percent of the city's population." Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board labor representative Winnie Sancho, meanwhile, deplored the neglect on the City and even the province's strength in agriculture, where the biggest human resource reserves are found. "Neither does the service sector performs satisfactorily in Bacolod despite efforts in the information, communication and technology (ICT)," Sancho said. "Unless the city reversed this situation, development can never be achieved." He also observed that this trend is the same in all municipalities and cities in Negros Occidental. "The province therefore has lots of things to do if it has to achieve development as well." - Sun.Star Bacolod