Oil workers highest paid in PH

Among manufacturing establishments in the country, employees in the refined petroleum products industry were the highest paid in 2010, preliminary results of a National Statistics Office survey showed.

Businesses that manufacture electronic components, meanwhile, created the most number of jobs and generated the highest output value, according to the 2010 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) released late Thursday.

Employees in establishments involved in refined petroleum products each earned an average annual pay of P1.6 million in 2010—a level above the manufacturing sector’s average income of P220,835 per employee.

Other top-paying industries were air and spacecraft and related machinery (where each worker earned an average of P655,700); dairy products (P548,000); pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products (P510,000) and motor vehicles (P450,400).

In terms of having the most number of workers, the electronic components industry ranked first with 117,227 employees, accounting for 13.4 percent of the total, followed by those in wearing apparel except fur products with 85,805 workers (9.8 percent), and other food products with 53,889 workers (6.2 percent).

Overall, manufacturing establishments generated 871,796 jobs in 2010, of which 99.8 percent were paid employees while the rest were working owners and unpaid workers.

The survey, conducted in April 2011, found that 4,643 manufacturing establishments employed 20 or more workers.

The top 10 manufacturing industries based on the number of their establishments were other food products (410), wearing apparel except fur (347), plastic products (337), printing and service activities related to printing (236), other fabricated metal products; metal working service activities (233), furniture (214), paper and paper products (157), other chemical products (146 ), nonmetallic mineral products (136) and electronic components (131).

Most of the establishments were found in Metro Manila, which accounted for 1,898, or 40.9 percent, of the total, followed by Calabarzon with 1,212 (26.1 percent) and Central Visayas with 491 (10.6 percent).

Further, the electronic components industry generated the highest output value in 2010 with P526.5 billion, or 15 percent of the total output value of manufacturing estimated at P3.5 trillion.

ASPBI aims to provide planners and policymakers in government and in the private sector with information on the levels, structure and trends of economic activities.