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Philippines: Jobless rate rises to 5% in Oct
MANILA, Philippines — Unemployment in the country rose in October due to a drop in the number of agriculture workers, government data showed.
Based on the results of the Philippine Statistics Authority Labor Force Survey(LFS) for October, the jobless rate in October stood at five percent, slightly up from 4.7 percent in the same month last year.
This led to a decline in overall employment in October to 41.6 million, bringing down the country’s employment rate to 95 percent from 95.3 percent in the same month the previous year.
Among the regions with the highest unemployment rates were Ilocos Region (8.2 percent), NCR (6.1 percent) and Central Luzon (6.0 percent).
The National Economic and Development Authority(NEDA) attributed the decline in total employment to the drop in workers employed by the agriculture sector as it shed around 1.4 million jobs, representing a 12.1 percent decline.
“The said sector contributed to the setback in the overall employment rate in October 2017,”NEDA said.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said there is a need to closely monitor the agriculture sector to ensure that those engaged in agriculture are highly productive and resilient and are increasingly linked to the industry and services sectors.
“Agriculture sector is very vulnerable to risks including natural and manmade hazards. The government should strengthen early warning systems and social protection programs for the sector to ensure resiliency of agricultural communities,” Pernia said.
He added the sector requires sustainable productivity improvements by promoting value addition, product diversification, and accelerating local infrastructure provision like irrigation systems and farm-to-market roads.
Despite the rise in unemployment, agriculture was still the second largest employer among sectors in October as it accounted for 25 percent of total employment during the month.
The services sector remained the top employer as it accounted for 57 percent of the total employed in October.
“Among them, those engaged in the wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles accounted for the largest percentage (34.8 percent) of workers in the services sector,” the PSA said.
While the overall employment rate declined in October, the Philippine workforce saw signs of improvement in terms of underemployments. The PSA reported that the underemployment rate, or the proportion of employed wanting additional work hours, dropped to 15.9 percent.
This represents approximately 893,000 less underemployed workers, which is 2.1 percentage points lower than the 18.0 percent recorded registered in 2016.
“The lower underemployment rate and the higher proportion of wage and salary workers indicate improvement in the quality of employment in the country,” Pernia said.
Underemployment in areas outside the NCR registered at 17 percent, lower by 2.6 points from 19.6 percent in 2016.
“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,” Pernia added.
NEDA also emphasized the need to pursue policies to increase labor force participation of women.
Among these include the full implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law; improved access and affordability of child care services; policies that promote work-life balance, including a regulatory framework to allow part-time work and work-from-home even in the formal sector; the provision of re-training services for women returning to the workforce; enhancing maternal and paternal benefits; and improved access of women to entrepreneurial opportunities.
Moreover, the PSA also reported that the number of remunerative and stable wage and salaried workers increased by about 624,000, while vulnerable employment (proportion of self-employed and unpaid family workers to total employment) further decreased to 33.9 percent in October 2017, an improvement from 36.3 percent a year ago.
Source: http://www.philstar.com/business/2017/12/14/1768112/jobless-rate-rises-5-oct