AS election-related projects ended, so did the jobs that came with them, as was shown by the increase in the country’s unemployment rate to 7.4 percent in the January Labor Force Survey (LFS) released yesterday by the National Statistics Office (NSO).
Based on the NSO data, the country’s employment rate decreased to 92.6 percent in January 2011 from 92.7 percent in January 2010. The underemployment rate also went down to 19.4 percent this year from 19.7 percent last year.
The number of jobless Filipinos increased to 2.919 million in January 2011 from 2.827 million in January 2010. The number of underemployed, on the other hand, decreased to 7.054 million this year from 7.107 million in 2011.
In an interview, Dr. Rene E. Ofreneo, director of the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (Solair) Center for Labor Justice (CLJ), said one explanation for this increase was that the jobs that were offered during the elections have already ended.
“It is likely that after December, the projects related to the elections were already finished and caused a decline in the ranks of the employed,” Ofreneo said in a telephone interview.
He said this is somewhat unusual for the Philippines since January is normally a strong month for employment. This is because there is still some carryover from the last quarter of the previous year when most of the Filipinos are employed.
Given this development and the disaster in Japan, Ofreneo said there may also be some negative impact on employment, particularly in April. He said that apart from the fact that the April LFS usually gives the worst employment data in a year because of the new entrants to the labor force, the disaster will likely affect the country’s electronic exports.
Ofreneo said the Philippines’ electronics sector is closely linked to Japan. With the disaster, there may be some reductions in the number of workers employed in the electronics industry.
“Historically kapag January, medyo malakas ang employment. But in April, medyo tatamaan tayo because the electronics industry is closely linked to Japan,” Ofreneo said.
Based on the NSO data, there were more unemployed males or 62.7 percent of all unemployed than females, with only 37.3 percent. Almost half, or 48.9 percent, of the unemployed were in age group between 15 and 24.
The data also showed that more than one-third, or 35.1 percent, of the unemployed were high-school graduates, and almost two-fifths, or 39.1 percent, obtained a college education.
Among the underemployed, or those who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, about 60.5 percent were working less than 40 hours during the reference week. The NSO said this is referred to as the “visibly underemployed.”
The NSO said that those working for 40 hours or more accounted for 37 percent. The underemployed in the agriculture sector accounted for 44.8 percent of the total underemployed, those in the services sector at 40.4 percent and in the industry sector at 14.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the NSO said that in the January 2011 LFS, the size of the labor force was approximately 39.2 million persons out of the estimated 61.5 million population 15 years old and above, resulting in the labor force participation rate (LFPR) of 63.7 percent.
The total number of employed persons in January was 36.293 million. Among the regions, Mimaropa registered the highest labor-force participation rate at 70 percent, while the lowest was posted in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at 55.7 percent.
Of the estimated 36.3 million employed persons in January 2011, the services sector was the largest group comprising more than half, or 52.5 percent, of the total employed population. The largest employed work force in the services sector was in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods, or 20 percent of the total employed.
Among the various occupation groups, the laborers and unskilled workers comprised the largest group making up 31.7 percent of the total employed persons in January 2011. Farmers, forestry workers and fishermen were the second-largest group, accounting for 16 percent of the total employed.
Employed persons are classified as either full-time workers or part-time workers. Full-time workers are those who work for 40 hours or more, while part-time workers work for less than 40 hours. Of the total employed persons in January 2011, 62.4 percent were working full time, while 36.3 percent were part-time workers.
