July employment rate up, but jobless youths and underemployment high

September 5, 2018

The employment rate improved slightly to 94.6 percent in July from 94.4 percent during the same period last year but the number of youths without jobs and underemployment continued to rise, the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Wednesday.

This is the highest among previous July rounds in the last ten years and similar to July 2016, with an estimated net generated employment of 488,000, and reaching total employment of 40.7 million, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said.

The unemployment rate decreased to 5.4 percent from 5.6 percent in the previous year. This is one of the lowest unemployment rates for all surveys in the July rounds since 2008, NEDA said.

“An average of 1.17 million additional employment has been created so far in the first three rounds of the Labor Force Survey. And this puts the government on track in meeting its target of 900,000-1.1 million employment generation for 2018,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.

Youth unemployment remains relatively high at 14.1 percent, which is a "concern" said Pernia.

“The share of inactive youth remains a concern. The government must equip students with industry-relevant competencies as well as increase their opportunities for work experience. A stronger academe-industry linkage should orient students better on career prospects,” he said.

Underemployment—or full-time workers who seek additional hours of work— increased to 17.2 percent or an estimated 7.0 million workers in July 2018 . This is higher compared to the 16.3 percent or about 6.5 million underemployed workers in July 2017.

Pernia said poor low-skilled workers must be provided access to education and skills development programs that will provide lifelong learning opportunities, and that will respond to the changing needs of the labor market, especially in the context of disruptive technologies.

He also pushed for the reform of labor laws to provide better social protection to workers, while also improving labor market flexibility to maintain competitiveness and create more jobs.

The services sector accounted for more than half of total employment, contributing additional employment of more than 1.1 million, NEDA said.

The industry sector also recorded positive employment growth of 2.2 percent, or 172, 000 additional employment. Among industry sub sectors, the manufacturing sector contributed the largest.

The shares of industry and manufacturing to total employment of 19.4 percent and 9.0 percent, respectively, are the highest in a decade, NEDA said.  DMS