HSBC sees continued drop in number of jobless Filipinos

Unemployment in the Philippines will continue to shrink as the economy surges while others in the region move in the opposite direction, British bank HSBC said this week.

In a new report, HSBC said one reason for the expected improvements in the local job market was the country’s bright economic prospects.

Unemployment in the Philippines also remains high relative to the country’s neighbors, many of which may have seen joblessness bottom out.

“Layoffs in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) appear to be on the rise,” HSBC said.

The report covering Asean’s six largest economies cited Indonesia’s Manpower Ministry, which reported 79,000 layoffs in the year to September, with the largest cuts in labor-intensive industries such as textiles, electronics and footwear.

Neighboring Malaysia has not been spared job cuts.

For instance, amid depressed energy prices, Shell Malaysia announced in September that it would lay off 20 percent of its workforce over the next two years in a bid to “prioritize productivity and efficiency.”

Meanwhile, a number of Malaysian banks including CIMB, Hong Leong Bank, RHB Capital and Affin Bank have also announced layoffs, affecting over 4,000 personnel.

Banking-sector cuts have also been reported in Singapore, though these have primarily occurred within large international banks.

In contrast, the Philippines is not facing any such pressure. As of July, the economy added nearly 1.1 million jobs. This is about half the jobs created for the whole of 2014.

About 90 percent of these jobs created so far are in services, particularly in wholesale and retail trade, public administration and defense as well as transport and storage.

The rest of the jobs have been created in the industrial sector, namely construction.

Unemployment in the Philippines, however, remains higher than in neighboring states.

Headline unemployment in Vietnam stood at 2.5 percent. Indonesia’s jobless rate reached 6.2 percent, while 3.1 percent of Malaysian adults did not have jobs at the end of March.

All measures were about half a percentage-point higher than 2011 levels.

Singapore saw a more modest increase in unemployment, rising two-tenths of a point to 2 percent.

In the Philippines, latest government data showed unemployment at 6.4 percent.

Thailand’s unemployment rate of 0.9 percent was the lowest in the region, although HSBC questioned the reliability of this data, which counts informal employees as part of the workforce.