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By Darwin G. Amojelar,
Reporter
The Philippine labor market
remained weak in January as latest government data show only a small
number of Filipinos in the labor force was employed as of that
month.
The National Statistics Office
reported that the country’s unemployment rate rose to 7.4 percent
in January, from 6.3 percent in October.
Among the regions, the National
Capital Region, or NCR, has the highest unemployment rate of 12.5
percent, followed by Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal and Quezon at 9.4
percent, and Central Luzon, 9.3 percent.
The statistics office said men
have a higher unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, compared to women at
6.7 percent.
Some 39 percent of the unemployed
had attained college education, and 33.5 percent were high-school
graduates.
The country’s labor-force rate
in January was 63.4 percent (or 36.4 million out of 57.4-million
population 15 years and above). Last year’s labor-force rate was
64.8 percent.
Victor Abola, economics professor
at the University of Asia and the Pacific, said the strong peso
continued to take its toll on the manufacturing sector, which lost
88,000 jobs over a one-year period, and 99,000 posts since October
2007.
“These figures are hardly
conducive to a sustained strong growth,” he added.
Another way of viewing the weak
employment generation, despite the 30-year high of 7.3-percent
growth in gross domestic product, or GDP, Abola said, is that
employers preferred to make their workers work longer rather than
employ new people.
“This is reflected in the
decline in the number of employed persons working less than 40 hours
per week which was more than compensated for by the number working
more than 40 hours. Thus, the underemployment rate was 18.9 percent,
which was lower than the 21.5 percent registered in January 2007,
but a bit higher than the level of 18.1 percent chalked up in
October 2007,” he added.
The number of employed persons,
on the other hand, registered at 33.7 million, or a 92.6-percent
employment rate. Last year’s rate was 92.2 percent.
Of the 33.7 million employed
persons, 50.2 percent were in the services sector, 35 percent in the
agriculture sector, and 14.8 percent in the industry sector.
“These proportions were almost
the same as in January 2007 estimates at 50.5 percent for services
sector, 34.7 percent for agriculture sector, and 14.8 percent for
industry sector,” the statistics office said.
In terms of occupation groups,
laborers and unskilled workers comprised the largest proportion with
31.6 percent of the total employed population. Farmers, forestry
workers and fishermen registered the next largest group of workers
with 18.2 percent in January 2008 and 17.6 percent in January 2007.
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