April employment rate improves slightly

The employment situation in the country improved slightly in April from the same month last year, with the services sector expectedly remaining the largest employer compared with other industries.

At the same time, the National Statistics Office’s latest Labor Force Survey showed that about 2.9 million persons were unemployed as of April, placing the unemployment rate at 7.2 percent.

This was lower than the 8 percent unemployment rate recorded during the same period last year, and the 7.4 percent in the previous month.

Total employment, meanwhile, was estimated at 92.8 percent, slightly higher by 0.8 percentage point than the 92 percent reported in April 2010.

Out of the estimated 61.8 million population 15 years old and over in April, about 39.7 million were in the labor force. This placed the labor force participation rate at 64.2 percent.

The bulk of employed persons were in the services sector, comprising more than half (51.7 percent) of the total employed population. Agriculture employed 33 percent and the industrial sector 15.3 percent.

Most of those employed in April were paid workers, constituting 55 percent of the total, with private establishments accounting for 41.4 percent of paid workers. Government and government-controlled corporations accounted for only 8.4 percent and private households 5 percent.

Self-employed workers constituted 29.6 percent of the total number of employed, while employers in family-operated farms or businesses made up 3.5 percent share.

Unpaid family workers accounted for 11.9 percent of the total employed.

Rene Ofreneo, director of the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations, said in a phone interview that the increase in employment was “surprising.”

This was especially so given poor economic conditions in the first few months of 2011 due to government underspending, oil price hikes that weighed down businesses, and the slower deployment of overseas Filipino workers because of the volatile situation in the Middle East and North Africa region, he said.

“On the other hand, the slight increase in employment could mean that Filipinos are just taking any job to survive. We should watch out for a growing informal sector and underemployment,” he said.

Ofreneo said that it’s good the services sector continues to fill jobs, as manufacturing and agriculture still need improvement. However, employment will likely remain to be the biggest challenge to the high-level, inclusive growth promised by the present administration.

Around 61.1 percent of the total employed persons in April were working full time while 37.1 percent were part-time workers.

Employed persons who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present jobs, or to have additional jobs, or to have new jobs with longer working hours are considered underemployed.

The number of underemployed persons in April was estimated at 7.1 million, placing the underemployment rate at 19.4 percent. About 59.6 percent of the total underemployed persons were working less than 40 hours a week.

More males (64 percent) were unemployed than females (36 percent). By age group, five out of 10 unemployed persons were in the age group 15 to 24 years old, while three in 10 unemployed persons were in age group 25 to 34 years old.

Across educational groups, most of the unemployed were high-school graduates (32.6 percent). College undergraduates constituted about 23.1 percent of the total unemployed and college graduates, 20.4 percent.