MANILA, Philippines - Companies are expected to slow down and hire fewer workers in the first quarter of next year as businesses are expected to cool down after the Christmas season, a survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.
Rosabel Guerrero, director of the BSP’s Department of Economic Statistics (DES), said results of the Business Expectations Survey (BES) for the fourth quarter showed the employment outlook and the number of firms with expansion plans decreased for the first quarter of 2016.
Guerrero said the employment outlook index for the first quarter next year decreased to 19.5 percent from 22.3 percent in the last quarter’s survey.
“This indicates that more firms will continue to hire new employees than those that said otherwise, although the number of new hires could decrease compared to the previous quarter’s survey,” she said.
Guerrero said the firms in the construction and retail trade sectors were less optimistic while those in the industry and services sectors were steady in their hiring intentions.
On the other hand, she explained the percentage of businesses with expansion plans in the industry sector for the first quarter of 2016 was broadly unchanged at 31.9 percent.
“This was largely driven by the steady outlook of the manufacturing sub-sector.
All other industry sub-sectors recorded weaker expansion plans,” Guerrero said.
For the first quarter of next year, she said respondents of the survey were broadly less optimistic with the overall confidence index falling to 43.9 percent from last quarter’s 53.1 percent as consumer demand is expected to moderate.
Earlier, the BSP reported that business sentiment soared to a two-year high for the fourth quarter amid robust consumer demand during the Christmas season, steady flows of cash remittances from overseas Filipinos and election-related spending.
The overall confidence index rose to 51.3 percent in the fourth quarter survey after dropping to 41.4 percent in the third quarter survey.
Factors for the more optimistic outlook include the expected increase in consumer demand during the Christmas, main palay harvest, and milling seasons.
Likewise, respondents also cited sustained increase in sales orders and projects leading to higher volume of production, the expansion of businesses and new product lines as well as introduction of new and enhanced business strategies and processes.