THE country’s employment numbers may have risen on account of the increase in the number of Filipinos employed in low-quality jobs, according to local economists.
Based on the results of the Labor Force Survey (LFS) released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday, the country’s employment rate increased to 94.6 percent, the highest in a decade, while the unemployment rate was at 5.4 percent in July.
However, the country’s underemployment rate increased to 17.2 percent in July 2018, from 16.3 percent in July 2017. More than half or 52.9 percent of these workers are considered invisibly employed or those who are already working over 40 hours a week but would like more work.
“This is not so good because invisible underemployment might have increased. The additional employment is composed of bad-quality jobs [such as] informal sector jobs,” Fernando T. Aldaba, dean of the School of Social Science at the Ateneo de Manila University, told the BusinessMirror.
“There seems to be a lot of additional service sector jobs that are of bad quality in the sense that they pay very low or arer mismatched [to the skills of workers]. They are employed physically eight hours, six days a week,” he added.
By sector, PSA data showed 46.8 percent of the underemployed worked in the services sector, while 32.4 percent were in the agriculture sector. Those in the industry sector accounted for 20.8 percent.
Former National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Director General Emmanuel F. Esguerra said underemployment has been a greater problem than unemployment in the Philippines.
Esguerra said poor Filipinos are the most affected by underemployment since they are almost always employed but do not earn enough income to support their families.
“Poor people cannot afford to be unemployed so they somehow have to find work even if the pay is inadequate. Underemployment is an indication of inadequacy in income,” Esguerra said.
Meanwhile, the Neda said underemployment—or workers who seek more work—increased to 17.2 percent, or an estimated 7 million workers in July 2018. This is higher compared to the 16.3 percent, or about 6.5 million, underemployed workers in July 2017.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. 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.
Pernia 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.
“In order to meet our employment targets, the government should provide an environment that is conducive to creating more and better jobs. It should prioritize policies and programs that address the issues of unutilized youth, unemployed youth, underemployment and vulnerable workers,” Pernia said.
However, Pernia said the increase in employment rate means the government is on track to meet its target of generating 900,000 to 1.1 million jobs this year.
The Neda said the services sector accounted for more than half of the country’s total employment, contributing additional employment of more than 1.1 million.
The industry sector also recorded positive employment growth of 2.2 percent, or 172,000 additional jobs. Among industry subsectors, the manufacturing sector contributed the largest during the period.
“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 to 1.1 million employment generation for 2018. With remarkable improvements, the government should not let up on its efforts to continually improve the employment situation in the country,” Pernia said.
The LFS is a nationwide quarterly survey of households to gather data on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the population, and provide statistics on trends of employment, unemployment and underemployment in the country.
Image credits: Alysa Salen