Job market growth in Metro Manila slowed in Q2
The growth of the job market for large enterprises in Metro Manila slowed in the second quarter of 2014 partly due to the anemic expansion of the construction industry, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
In its latest report on employment statistics, the PSA said that for the June quarter, the labor turnover rate—the difference between jobs gained and jobs lost—eased to 0.88 percent.
“The [slowing] was due mainly to job losses in the industry sector, particularly in construction, [which] offset the modest gains in the services and agriculture sectors,” the agency said.
“The slowdown parallels the lower economic growth rate [of 6.4 percent] registered in the same quarter as compared with [7.9 percent recorded in the] second quarter of 2013,” the PSA added.
In a separate report on the country’s gross domestic product, the PSA said the growth in the construction industry all but stopped at 1.4 percent from 16.4 percent previously.
Overall second-quarter employment growth was a far cry from the 2.5 percent recorded for the same period of 2013.
Even then, it was better than the 0.59 percent posted in the preceding quarter or January-March 2014.
For every 1,000 enterprise workers in the National Capital Region (NCR), a net of nine people were added during the three months to June this year.
For every thousand, 115 new hires joined but 106 quit or were fired.
The hiring rate was recorded at 11.47 percent while the separation rate was 10.59 percent.
Employment in the services sector improved by 1.38 percent, and agriculture by 1.7 percent.
On the other hand, jobs in the industry sector shrank by 0.68 percent.
Among 18 industries covered, the labor turnover rate in the second quarter was best in real estate services (3.55 percent); mining and quarrying (3.16 percent); and information and communication (2.55 percent).
On the other hand, employment was worst in construction (-4.15 percent); arts, entertainment and recreation (-0.89 percent); and electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply (-0.38 percent).
Further, the net turnover rate was also negative for human health and social work activities (-0.1 percent).
Other industries that showed moderate gains were administrative and support service activities (2.55 percent); accommodation and food service activities (2.48 percent); and agriculture, forestry and fishing (1.7 percent).
Sectors that also showed growth but were practically at a standstill include manufacturing, wholesale and retail; transportation and storage; financial and insurance services; professional, scientific and technical services; private education; and other service activities.
The PSA observed that large enterprises in a majority of sub-sectors—12 out of 18—took in new employees more because of the need to replace those who were let go than due to business expansion.
Moreover, based on the survey, more people went out of work because they were laid off and not because they quit.
Layoffs instead of quitting were most pronounced in the sub-sectors of construction; private education; and mining and quarrying.
Quitting rather than firing was most prevalent in accommodation and food service; information and communication; and financial and insurance.
The data are part of the PSA’s survey of 921 large corporations in NCR, which were drawn from the agency’s 2013 NCR List of Enterprises.
