MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines started to feel the adverse impact of the deepening global economic and financial crunch as the number of unemployed Filipinos rose by 7.7 percent at the start of 2009, according to results of the latest survey of the government-run National Statistics Office (NSO).
In January 2009, the NSO reported that the jobless rate climbed to 2.8 million, or an increase of 180,000, over the 2.65 million registered for the same month in 2008.
The manufacturing sector, the NSO said, led in the number of unemployed workers, accounting for 62 percent or 112,000 of the increase, followed by the financial sector with 28,000 jobs.
Construction stood at third with 17,000 unemployed with transport, storage and communication closely behind with 15,000, the NSO added.
At the same time, the regions that registered unemployment rates higher than the national average were Metro Manila, 14 percent; Calabarzon, 10.9 percent; Central Luzon, 9.7 percent; Ilocos, 8.5 percent; and Eastern Visayas, 7.8 percent, the NSO said.
Calabarzon, which plays host to the country’s biggest and most progressive export processing zones, is the acronym for the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces in Southern Luzon.
The NSO defines the unemployed as those aged 15 years and over, who have no jobs or are not running a business and are actively looking for jobs but cannot find any.
The unemployed, the agency said, also include those who, at the time of the survey, were not looking for jobs because they believed there were none available, or because of temporary disability or sickness or bad weather, or because they had pending jobs applications interviews.
Based on these, the NSO said that of the country’s estimated total population of 90 million, there are now 58.7 million Filipinos of working age, or 1.3 million more than the 57.4 million recorded in 2008.
Assistant Secretary Reydeluz Conferido of the Department of Labor and Employment confirmed that the global economic meltdown is to blame for the rise in the country’s unemployment figure.
But despite the grim NSO findings, Conferido described as a “pleasant” development the increase by 180,000 in the number of unemployed Filipinos in January as the global crisis worsened.
He explained: “We are really expecting an increase in unemployment because of the crisis. Yet the (NSO) survey indicated that the unemployment level did not worsen dramatically.”
Conferido pointed out that overall, the effect of the crisis is “positive” when compared to developed countries like the US and China which suffered an all-time high increase in unemployment.
He added the NSO findings were consistent with reports his office has received from the regional and provincial offices of the labor department regarding the dismissal or retrenchment of workers from their jobs due to the crisis.
In this light, Conferido said he was not surprised that the unemployment situation in Metro Manila, Eastern Visayas and Calabarzon has worsened because these regions are hosting large export-oriented industries affected by the global downturn.
Headline image credit: www.crimepsychblog.com
Loading ...
This rate is pretty alarming, thanks for the info! At least job search sites online are there to further help decrease the amount of unemployment in the country. I just hope the global recession ends soon. Great article!