STATEMENT OF DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL EMMANUEL F. ESGUERRA ON THE RELEASE OF THE JULY 2012 LABOR FORCE SURVEY
MANILA—The following is the statement of Dr. Emmanuel F. Esguerra, NEDA Deputy Director-General for Planning, on today’s release of the July 2012 round of the Labor Force Survey (LFS) by the National Statistics Office (NSO):
“From July last year, the number of employed Filipinos increased by 478,000 in July 2012, or a growth of 1.3 percent. This is slightly faster than the increase in the labor force, or the number of employed and unemployed combined, which was at 1.2 percent. The higher growth of employment over the labor force reduced further the unemployment rate to 7.0 percent from 7.1 percent last year.
“Following the trend in economic activity, employment growth was widely observed in services and industry-oriented occupation groups. For instance, the number of laborers and unskilled workers, which comprise about a third of the total employed, rose by 3.0 percent from the same month last year. There were also significant gains in the number of service workers and shop and market sales workers (8.3%), plant and machine operators and assemblers (5.3%), trades and related workers (4.6%), professionals (4.6%), and technicians and associate professionals (13.9%),
“However, the number of farmers, forestry workers and fishermen declined by 8.8 percent. This was partly due to the ill-effects of typhoons and monsoon rains that occurred within the period. Typhoons Butchoy, Carina, Dindo, Ferdie and Gener in the months of June and July, exacerbated by the Southwest Monsoon or “Habagat,” affected employment in the agriculture forestry and fishing sector, as flooding and landslides were reported in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and Central Luzon.
“The number of workers with wages and salaries increased (6.3%) in July 2012, while the number of self-employed (5.4%) and unpaid family workers (10.7%) registered declines. In terms of hours worked, the number of full-time workers, which comprised around two-thirds of total employment, grew by 2.3 percent while the number of part-time declined by 0.1 percent, which is around 8,000 workers.
“Employment quality deteriorated, however. The underemployment rate rose from 19 percent in July last year to 22.7 percent in July 2012. The high underemployment rate, can be partly attributed to the bulk of the new labor force entrants, those aged 15-24 years old, who may be employed as casuals and receiving less than their reservation wage, owing to their lack of skills or inexperience. Moreover, the higher underemployment rate suggests that workers are not earning enough which makes them look for more work.
“The government is working to address two issues: generation of more jobs and improving the quality of jobs. On the first issue, government is pushing for the timely implementation of the public investment program, especially flood control projects, in the immediate term, as well as the strengthening of the Community-Based Employment Program (CBEP). However, public employment programs cannot be expected to address the second issue. NEDA will coordinate with DOLE and begin discussions with the private sector on what concretely can be done to encourage private investments that will generate stable and high quality employment.”
Esguerra heads the NEDA’s National Development Office (NDO) for Planning and Policy and supervises four NEDA sector staffs, namely the National Planning and Policy Staff; Trade, Industry and Utilities Staff; Agriculture Staff; and Social Development Staff.
The NDO provides technical staff support to the NEDA Board in coordinating the formulation of national and sectoral policies, plans and programs. It also monitors macroeconomic and sectoral performance, and conducts economic and development studies on macrolevel plans and policies.
, September 18, 2012
