More formal sector jobs boost labor rights – DOLE

MANILA, Philippines – Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz lauded the country’s all-year rise in employment, adding that the accompanying jobs growth in the formal sector will provide better protection for workers.

Better quality jobs were generated in October 2014 compared to a year ago, with wage and salary workers up by 770,000 or 3.5%, and private establishment workers up by 605,000 or 3.6%, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Thursday, December 11.

“One good aspect of the robust employment growth is the growing private sector and wage employment,” said the DOLE chief. “This is a good employment indicator because wage and salary workers, or the so-called formal sector workers, are more protected.”

Baldoz’ comments come a day after the release of the October 2014 Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which reported that the country’s unemployment rate is at its lowest in 10 years. 

Mindful of the hurdles ahead, Baldoz acknowledged the need to guarantee protection for the 39% self-employed and unpaid family workers of the country’s employed.

“These are the vulnerable workers and we need to protect them,” she said of them, adding that the 0.7% spike in underemployment is also “a visible challenge that needs to be addressed.”

Still, the labor chief said she was “elated” with “a generally positive employment picture” as 2014 closes.

The survey showed a total of 1.046 million people found new jobs in October 2014, adding up to the total employment of 38.839 million. This is a 2.8% increase from October 2013’s 37.793 million employed.

Employment figures

In its report, the PSA said the country’s employment rate in October 2014 is at 94%, 0.4% higher than a year ago.

The data exclude the employment figures in Leyte province, which was likewise excluded in last year’s data set. The province was battered by Super Typhoon Yolanda which struck in November 2013 and left over 6,000 dead.

Workers in the services sector still drove the employment rate, including those engaged in wholesale and retail trade, or in the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, comprising 53.7% of the total employed.

The October data complete what Baldoz hailed as “successive growth in employment for the whole year.”

“In the 2014 January LFS, employment grew by 606,000; then it grew by 1.654 million in the 2014 April LFS; and 1.061 million new employed persons were posted in the 2014 July LFS,” she said. 

Reacting to the significant gains in the country’s labor market, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director-General Arsenio M Balisacan earlier said the “broad-based growth” will provide “an optimistic outlook on the country’s economic performance in the fourth quarter of 2014.”

“It is worth noting that workers with higher educational attainment registered higher unemployment rates compared to workers with lower grade completion,” he added.

“This further supports the view that the lower income group (or those whose workers with lower educational attainment) cannot afford to be unemployed while the more educated can prolong the time spent looking for work,” he explained. – Rappler.com

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