Research group IBON said the recently reported large
increase in employment and slight decrease in unemployment bring much-needed
relief to millions of Filipinos who have been suffering worsening unemployment
since the Duterte administration began. The group however also warned against
complacency. Looking at the official labor force survey results more completely
shows that the majority of jobs created were temporary and poor-quality.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that in
October 2019 the employment rate grew to 95.5%, while the unemployment rate was
lower at 4.5 percent. The number of employed Filipinos rose by 1.8 million to
43.1 million and the number of unemployed declined by 153,000 to 2 million.
According to IBON estimates correcting for government
underestimation, however, the number of unemployed was actually 4.1 million in
October 2019. This is over double the officially reported 2 million unemployed.
Official unemployment figures do not reflect discouraged workers who stopped
looking for work in the past six months or those unable to immediately take up
work, instead considering them as ‘not in the labor force’.
The economy’s productive sectors continue to weaken, said
the group. IBON noted that while employment in agriculture in October 2019
increased, the sector is on a general trend of decline due to government
neglect and anti-farmer policies. The number of employed in agriculture fell
from 11.8 million in October 2016 to 10.4 million in October 2017 and 10
million in October 2018. This slightly bounced up to 10.1 million in October
2019 but not enough to recover the significant agricultural job losses since the
start of the Duterte administration.
IBON said, in particular, the agriculture, hunting and
forestry subsector lost 49,000 jobs falling to 8.8 million in October 2019 from
8.85 million in October last year. This likely includes rice farmers displaced
by the recently passed Rice Liberalization Law. This was only offset by a
214,000 surge in fisheries employment, to 1.31 million.
The manufacturing sector also continues to weaken, said the
group, with the number of employed in the sector decreasing by 56,000 to 3.61
million in October 2019 from 3.7 million in October 2018. Agriculture and
manufacturing are the most important sectors for job generation, increasing
incomes, and economic development so this weakening should be cause for
concern.
IBON said that the main sources of additional jobs were in in
sectors where employment is temporary and poor quality or jobs that are
low-paying, uncertain and informal. Those employed in wholesale and retail
trade increased by 563,000 to 8.56 million, in transportation and storage by
336,000 to 3.50 million, and in construction by 308,000 to 4.22 million. These
three sectors accounted for some two-thirds of net employment generation.
The wholesale and retail trade sector in particular is
notorious for low-earning and insecure work, the group said. The trade subsector
has the lowest average daily basic pay among all subsectors outside
agriculture. As of the latest available data from 2018, wage and salary workers
in the trade subsector were paid just Php358 compared to the Php404 average in
industry and Php483 average across all services. Contractual low-paid work is
also the norm in the construction sector.
The concern about poor quality work is confirmed by how 1.34
million of the 1.82 million additional employment, or an overwhelming
three-out-of-four new jobs, was in part-time work of less than 40 hours per
week, said IBON. The mean hours worked per week correspondingly fell from 42.8
hours in October 2018 to 41.8 hours in October 2019.
The
number of those who worked without pay also continued to increase by 187,000 to
reach 2.53 million in October 2019, the group noted.
IBON said that the government should be careful
in hailing ‘record low unemployment’ if the quality of work is still so
uncertain, irregular and low-paying. The immediate relief of at least some work
for so many now should not distract the government from taking real steps to
develop domestic agriculture and Filipino industry. These are needed for
millions of Filipinos to enjoy stable, regular and higher-paying jobs and be
lifted from poverty, the group said. ###
