NEW hires in Metro Manila’s top 500 firms were driven more by the exit of workers than business expansion during the past five years, a survey by the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) shows.

The BLES study, released Wednesday by the labor department, said that accession or new hires among the top 500 firms in the National Capital Region were boosted by the replacement of separated workers from 4.59 percent in 2003 to 8.53 percent in 2007.

On the other hand, new hires due to business expansion accounted for 1.94 percent in 2003 and 2.94 percent in 2007, according to the Labor Turnover Survey (LTS), which studies the capture and rate of job creations and separations among the top 5,000 corporations in the country.

Separations were more employer-initiated (3.8 percent to 4.50 percent) than employee-initiated (2.49 percent to 3.42 percent), said the survey.

The BLES defines new hires, either as permanent or temporary additions to employment in an enterprise due to expansion of business activity, or as replacement of separated workers. 

Separations, on the other hand, refer to quits or terminations initiated by employees, or layoffs initiated by employers due to economic reasons, such as lack of market, financial losses or redundancy or non-economic reasons.

Accessions and separations among Metro Manila’s top corporations, according to the survey, follow a seasonal pattern with new hires due to replacement of workers usually peaking during the first three quarters but never during the last quarter of the year.

On the other hand, employer-initiated separations normally peak during the first and third quarters, but never in the second quarter, a pattern that varies largely from industry to industry, added the BLES.

The agency said despite the sluggish employment growth from 2003 to 2005, accession rates among Metro Manila’s leading firms have improved from 9.23 percent  in 2006 to 10.47 percent in 2007.

Meanwhile, separation rates during the same period have little difference, 7.70 in 2006 and 7.64 the year after.

In 2007 alone, some 28 workers per 1,000 employees were new hires or a labor turnover of 2.83 percent, denoting the difference between the accession and separation rates during the year.

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New hires in Metro Manila firms replaced those workers who exited

NEW hires in Metro Manila’s top 500 firms were driven more by the exit of workers than business expansion during the past five years, a survey by the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) shows.

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