Job growth in large firms improves

Job growth in large Metro Manila enterprises improved in the first quarter of 2017 as improvements were seen across the three major sectors of the economy, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Results from the PSA’s latest labor turnover survey show that for the March quarter, the labor turnover rate—the difference between jobs gained and jobs lost—moved to 1.27 percent.

This was an improvement from the 0.96 percent registered in the first quarter of 2016, but worse than the 3.36 percent in the fourth quarter last year.

For every 1,000 enterprise workers in the National Capital Region (NCR), a net of 13 people were added during the three months to March.

For every thousand, 88 new hires joined but 75 quit or were fired.

The hiring rate was recorded at 8.8 percent while the separation rate was 7.5 percent.

Overall, employment in the agriculture sector grew by 2.5 percent, industry sector by 2.8 percent, and services sector improved by 0.9 percent.

“The highest labor turnover rate for the period was recorded in the industry sector … with an accession rate of 8.5 percent and separation rate of 5.7 percent,” the PSA said.

“All industries under this sector posted employment gains where the most significant was in mining and quarrying (14.9 percent),” PSA added.

Also among the top five industries with the best labor figures are manufacturing (3.9 percent); information and communication (2.8 percent); agriculture, forestry and fishing (2.5 percent); and financial and insurance services (2.4 percent).

This latest labor turnover survey covered 13,099 enterprises in the National Capital Region, with an estimated total employment of about 2.4 million in the first quarter.