Baldoz: Unemployment rate down 7.3%

Legaspi City, Philippines—Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz on Wednesday said the country’s economic growth has improved, owing to the drop by 7.3 percent in unemployment rate during the past six months of this year.

Baldoz said jobs generated by the agriculture, services and manufacturing sectors have significantly contributed in bringing down unemployment to 2.9 million or 7.3 percent of the country’s labor force.

She said the country’s employment rate has now been pegged at 92.7 percent, or 37 million employed persons.

The Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics said that employment level grew year-on-year in April to 36.8 million, up 4 percent from 35.4 million last year.

At the same time, unemployment rate went down by 228,000 from 3 million in April last year to 2.9 million in April 2011.

Baldoz said the country’s labor market regained momentum as employment grew, driven by the marked recovery in agriculture, fishery and forestry sector, followed by the services sector due to the continued expansion of business process outsourcing,  information communication technology and the slower pace in the manufacturing sector.

Under the 5-year Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, the Aquino administration intends to bring the country’s economic growth with a projected annual rate of 6 to 7 percent and create a million jobs a year, she said.

Baldoz was here Wednesday to launch the Department of Labor and Employment’s Community Enterprise Development projects, where she awarded livelihood grants and emergency wage employment assistance (EWES) to several overseas Filipino worker beneficiaries in Bicol and the local governments of Malinao and Polangui in Albay, the two towns hardest hit by Tropical Storm “Juaning” last July.

The Labor chief said she was hoping the improvement in the employment figure would continue, adding DOLE had already identified several foreign firms that have committed to set up businesses in the country.

She said the Philippines is now being considered by investors as an Industrial Peace Hub among Asian countries because of the government-backed “Zero Strike and Zero Accident” program.

This, she said, was a welcome development considering that the Philippines was previously known as the “strike capital” of Asia.