DESPITE the strong performance of the construction industry this year, the government still fell short of its target of generating over 900,000 jobs for 2018.
Citing government statistics, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said only 800,000 jobs were generated this year.
The DOLE’s target under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017 to 2022 is a range of 900,000 to 1.1 million.
Still, the additional entrants to the country’s work force helped raise by 2 percent the total work force from 40.3 million in 2017 to 41.16 million this year.
Among the top contributors of new employment opportunities were the Construction industry with 328,000 jobs; Public Administration and Defense with 152,000; manufacturing with 144,000; and Administrative Support Services and Activities with 111,000.
DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) Director Dominique R. Tutay said another key employment generator is the logistic sector, which was stimulated with the recent opening of more roads, bridges and seaports.
“It grew 171,000 jobs from 2016 to 2018 and [made] the sector a key employment-generating sector up to 2022,” Tutay said.
Both construction and logistics, the DOLE noted, are expected to continue creating new employment opportunities, especially once the government’s “Build, Build, Build” project is fully implemented.
“Thousands of workers will still be needed in the said industry,” Tutay said.
Tutay said the strong performance in the two sectors will help the government meet its PDP target for 2019.
The 2019 elections are also seen to help perk up the labor market, especially in the “services sector as hotels and restaurants would demand for more workers,” Tutay said.
For 2018, the DOLE also reported the government sustained the decrease in unemployment, to 5.3 percent, from 5.7 percent last year—or 140,000 fewer jobless people.
Underemployment this year, however, spiked, indicating many of the generated jobs were of low quality.