MANILA, Philippines – The number of jobless Filipinos has dropped, according to surveys conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and Social Weather Stations (SWS), due to better employment opportunities in the service and industry sectors.

According to the PSA, the country’s unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent last July from 6.5 percent in July 2015.

The underemployment rate, meanwhile, decreased to 17.3 percent from 21 percent during the same period.

The employment rate rose to 94.6 percent from 93.5 percent. This translates to 41 million Filipinos employed.

The Philippines currently has a total of 68.44 million people within the working age group of 15 years and older.

“Our growing economy, which is largely driven by output expansion in the services and industry sector, has created more and better jobs,” National Economic and Development Authority director general and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.

The NEDA said the services sector remained the top job generator during the period with a share of 55.3 percent of the total employed. The industry sector accounted for 17.8 percent of the total employed, driven largely by strong growth in manufacturing and construction.

July’s unemployment rate is at the lower end of the target of 6.5 to 6.7 percent under the Philippine Development Plan for 2011 to 2016.

Employed persons pertain to those who work full-time or part-time. Underemployed pertains to persons who are employed but want more hours of work.

Youth unemployment rate also dropped to 13.5 percent from 16.3 percent. The share of inactive youth – those who are neither studying nor employed – dropped to 22 percent relative to the 24.8 percent trend since 2011.

“But while this is good news, this still means that there are 4.3 million young Filipinos who are underutilized because their skills are not being enhanced by education, training or employment. Government needs to strengthen its JobStart program, which provides assistance to young Filipinos in finding decent jobs,” Pernia said.

Out of those employed, those with stable wage was placed at 25.2 million or 61.5 percent. Most of these workers, almost 80 percent, work for private establishments. Around 31 percent of the employed have their own businesses.

“The increasing trend of quality employment indicators like wage and salaried employment, full time employment and mean hours of work suggests the buoyant state of the country’s labor market,” Pernia said.

Despite the improvement in the country’s employment figures, he said vulnerable employment remained to be a concern. This pertains to those who are self-employed or unpaid family workers that make up a third of the total employed.

“The sluggish decline of vulnerable employment could partly explain why poverty reduction is slow. These workers are less likely to have formal work arrangements and access to social protection. They are also more at risk during crises or shocks,” Pernia said.

Thus, he said the government should focus efforts on helping unutilized or underutilized youth, the unemployed youth and vulnerable workers.

“Sustainable livelihood and entrepreneurship schemes for vulnerable workers must be developed by intensifying advocacy for financial literacy, linking them to market supply chains and providing wider access to capital, credit and technology,” Pernia said.

As per the SWS survey, the number of jobless Filipinos decreased to around 10 million in the second quarter of the year, down by about one million from April. – With Janvic Mateo

Source: www.philstar.com/headlines