Phl jobless rate drops to 6.5%

MANILA, Philippines - The country's unemployment rate slightly dropped to 6.5 percent in October 2013 from the 6.8 percent recorded the previous year on the back of robust hiring in the industry and services sector.

“The increase in employment in these sectors, propped up by wholesale and retail trade in the services sector, more than offset the decline in the agriculture sector,” National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said on Tuesday.

Balisacan said the country's employment rate managed to inch up to 93.5 percent from the 93.2 percent the previous year despite a series of typhoon that hit the country.

The state agency reported that more than half or 53.4 percent of the total workers in the country are in the services sector, followed by the agriculture sector (31.4 percent) and industry sector (15.2 percent). Balisacan said he expects these sectors to grow in light of the Christmas season.

Underemployment, on the other hand, dropped to 17.9 percent from the 19 percent posted the previous year. NEDA said this could be attributed to the satisfaction on current employment conditions due to higher incomes and low or stable inflation.

The survey excluded data from Leyte as data from the National Statistics Office were destroyed due to typhoon Yolanda.

Meanwhile, data from the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics show that the average daily basic pay has been increasing steadily since January 2012 from about P327 in January 2012 to about P346 in January 2013, while inflation stood at 2.8 percent in the first 10 months of the year, below the government’s target of 3 to 5 percent.

"There is a need to sustain efforts that facilitate the substantial creation of decent and quality employment.  Further, we need to implement disaster risk-management to mitigate the impact of weather disturbances, particularly in agriculture,” Balisacan said.

He added that the country need to increase agricultural productivity through the use of proper technology. 

"We also need to strengthen the link of agriculture with the manufacturing sector to create more quality employment such as in the agro-industry,” he said.

Balicasan added that there is a need for policies that allow flexible work arrangements so that both employers and the labor force can seize growth opportunities and easily adapt to changing markets.