AFP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—From 37.01 million in April 2013, the number of employed Filipinos rose to 38.66 million during the same period this year, or an increase of 1.65 million jobs nationwide.
This was reported on Wednesday by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, citing the April 2014 Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Barring any major setbacks, she expressed optimism the next PSA labor survey “will sustain the country’s robust employment situation.”
“This optimism is anchored on the overall efforts and commitment of the government, including the Department of Labor and Employment, to implement programs, projects and services that facilitate employment and make the business climate conducive for job generation,” said the DOLE head.
She noted that last Monday, President Aquino delivered his fifth State of the Nation Address with a “generally positive employment picture.”
In a statement, Baldoz disclosed that 14 regions nationwide recorded employment gains: Region IV-A with 325,000 new jobs, followed by Region III, 205,000; Region VII, 186,000; National Capital Region,185,000; Region XI, 181,000; Region VI, 173,000; Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 134,000; Region I, 87,000; Region X, 83,000; Caraga, 52,000; Region XII, 51,000; Region IV-B, 44,000; Region V, 26,000, and the Cordillera Administrative Region, 4,000.
“Only three regions suffered from employment losses. These are Region II (42,000 jobs), Region IX (27,000) and Region VIII (13,000),” she pointed out.
By worker class, new wage and salary workers topped the field with 909,000, followed by those who were self-employed without any paid employees, 329,000; and employers in family-operated businesses, 114,000, among others.
“Based on the survey, the number of wage and salary workers increased by 4.3 percent from 21.3 million a year ago to 22.21 million year-on-year. This is a good employment indicator because wage and salary workers, or the so-called formal sector workers, are more protected,” she said.
Of the 1.65 million newly employed Filipinos, some 929,000 came from the services sector, followed by 374,000 in the industry sector, and 352,000 in the agriculture sector.
Baldoz did not cite the country’s unemployment rate, placed at 10.07 million in January by the PSA.
The Social Weather Stations, on the other hand, said about 12.1 million Filipinos were jobless during the last quarter of 2013.
Last year, the Philippines—at 7.3 percent—had the highest unemployment rate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said the International Labor Organization.
Next was Indonesia with 6 percent, followed by Brunei, 3.7 percent; Burma, 3.5 percent; Malaysia, 3.2 percent; Singapore, 3.1 percent; Vietnam, 1.9 percent; Laos, 1.4 percent; Thailand, 0.8 percent, and Cambodia, 0.3 percent.
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