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By ADRIAN STEWART CO
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Sunday, December 18, 2016
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MANILA – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Philippine labor market boomed to a new high as the rate of employment increased in October 2016.
A data from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Labor Force Survey (LFS) for October 2016 showed that employment rate rose to 95.3 percent to reach 41.7 million Filipinos employed.
“This means that the growth of our economy is becoming more inclusive as it engages more and more Filipinos to participate in the labor market,” said Socioeconomic Planning secretary Ernesto Pernia.
The services sector remained the top employment contributor with a share of 54.9 percent or 22.9 million of the total employed. The industry sector, meanwhile, accounted for 17.2 percent or 7.2 million of the total employed in October 2016, driven largely by strong growth in manufacturing and construction.
Likewise, unemployment rate in the country dropped further to 4.7 percent, the lowest rate recorded in the past decade.
“With the decrease of unemployment in October 2016, our implied full-year unemployment rate will be 5.5 percent, exceeding the government target for 2016 of 6.5 to 6.7 percent,” he added.
Moreover, the unemployment rate among the youth continued to decline in October 2016 at 11.6 percent, also a record low for all October rounds of the LFS since 2006. Likewise, the share of inactive youth—those who are neither studying nor employed—has consistently been declining in the past four years and has dropped to 20.5 percent in October 2016.
“While this shows progress, it is important to note that the unemployment rate of the youth is still twice the national unemployment rate and thrice the unemployment rate of 25 to 54 age group. This shows that we need to equip our youth with the right skills and experience to be able to compete with seasoned workers,” said Pernia.
On the other hand, underemployment increased to 18 percent in October 2016, making the full-year 2016 underemployment rate of around 18.4 percent. Underemployment was prevalent among those working in private households and those employed in family business.
Meanwhile, the number of stable wage and salary employment grew to 25.3 million or 60.8 percent of total employed persons in October 2016. This is the highest for all October rounds since 2006. Private establishments employ nearly 80 percent of these workers, while the public sector employs just 13 percent.
“The increase in stable wage and salary employment reflects our economy’s strength and the result of the government’s clamp down on unlawful contractualization,” the Cabinet official said./PN
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