RESIGNATION and other “non-economic” factors were the most cited causes for the permanent displacement of workers this year, according to the latest report of the Department of Labor and Employment.
In its initial 2022 Job Displacement Report (JDR) obtained by BusinessMirror, DOLE reported that 69.7 percent of the reasons 386,257 employees cited for leaving their work from January to November were “non-economic” in nature.
The JDR is taken from the reports regularly submitted by employers to DOLE.
The top three most cited “non-economic” causes for the loss of employment are resignation with 78,800 affected workers, project completion (69,835), and absence without leave (31,649).
The remaining 30.3 percent or 117,150 of the said permanent displacement incidents were due to economic causes.
Retrenchment to prevent losses was cited as the main economic reason for permanent displacement after it affected 26,684 workers. It was followed by redundancy (20,330), and financial losses (9,448).
“Based on year-on-year comparison, Resignation (37.8 percent or +21,605) had the highest increase of displaced workers, followed by Project Completion (33.7 percent or +17,594) and Absence Without Leave (22.7 percent or +5,851),” DOLE said in its latest 6-page JDR.
Displacement trends
During the first nine months of the year, the rise and decline in permanent displacement has been erratic with the highest figure being reported in January with 56,286; and the lowest in April with 26,490.
Permanent displacements were decreasing again as of October, with 31,015 from 34,098 the month before. The declining trend continued last month with 30,211.
This was consistent with the data from the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which showed the unemployment rate dropping to 4.5 percent–the lowest in 17 years—in November.
Of the 386,257 permanently displaced workers from January to November this year, 347,628 were due to the 8.805 firms which implemented retrenchment.
The remaining 38,629 became jobless with the permanent closure of 1,585 establishments.
Recovering industries
The industries which tallied the most number of permanently displaced workers this year are construction (111,264), other service activities (59,800), and manufacturing (53,057).
“Year-on-year, the sectors with the highest increase in the number of displaced workers were manufacturing (52.8 percent or +18,338), followed by other services (7.1 percent or +6,764) and administrative and support service activities (13.2 percent or +6,093),” DOLE said.
Meanwhile, industries which were allowed to resume or increase their operations with the easing of government pandemic restrictions, registered the “steepest decline” in displacement figures.
These include transportation and storage (-62 percent or 16,651); arts, entertainment, and recreation (-4 percent or -4,650), and construction (-66.4 percent or -4,351).
Image credits: DOLE via Facebook