ILOILO City – The underemployment rate in Western Visayas dropped by 6.1 percent, the January 2019 Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistic Authority showed.
Underemployed persons are employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or in an additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours to augment their meager income.
From 22.9 percent in 2018, underemployment as of January 2019 was at 16.8 percent.
The construction boom contributed much to the reduction in underemployment, according to Regional Director Cyril Ticao of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
“Also in this city and Bacolod City, we see a lot of new hotels and restaurants opening,” Ticao added.
For his part, DOLE Region 6 labor relations focal person Niezel Anen Sabrido observed that Western Visayas is now producing graduates with skills and knowledge that match with what industries are looking for.
In demand workers in the region, he said, are those in the information technology industry, nurses, accountants, engineers, those in the wholesale and retail trade, in hotels and restaurants, those in manufacturing, construction, transport, storage and communication, those in real estate, renting and administrative and support services.
Director Fred Sollesta of the Philippine Statistics Authority Region 6 reported last week that Western Visayas’ economy grew by 6.1 percent from between calendar years 2017 to 2018.
The region’s growth approximated the national average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 6.2 percent.
Total gross regional domestic product (GRDP) amounted to P372.87 billion from P351.38 billion in 2017 or P21.5 billion more in the value of goods and services produced, said Sollesta.
The 6.1 percent GRDP growth rate resulted in the region becoming rank No. 12 among the 17 regions, excluding the National Capital Region (NCR).
However, in terms of magnitude or size, Western Visayas remained the fifth largest economy outside of NCR, according to Sollesta.
This performance demonstrates that the region has firmly laid the groundwork for continued progress in the future, being among the largest regional economies of the country, he said./PN
