More Pinoys hired than displaced during 1st half of 2004 — DOLE

More Filipinos found employment compared to the number of workers displaced in the second quarter of the year, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

Results of the DOLE Labor Turnover Survey (LTS), which took data from the country’s top 3,300 corporations, indicated a higher hiring rate of 7.33 percent compared with the separation rate posted at 5.47 percent.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas added that, based on the survey conducted from July to August, the hiring rate among local companies posted 1.9 percent growth during the second quarter.

"In absolute terms, the growth means that the employment is increased by 19 to 73 workers per 1,000 employed, while 55 workers per 1,000 employed quit or were terminated," Sto. Tomas said.

She noted that employment growth was the highest ever recorded since the DOLE first conducted the LTS survey two years ago and reversed the hiring slump in the first quarter of the year.

In the first quarter, the country’s top corporations located in the National Capital Region (NCR) reported a hiring rate of 59 workers per 1,000 employed and a separation rate of 61 workers per 1,000 employed.

The growth in the accession rate was attributed mainly to the replacement of separated workers. The accession rate due to the replacement of separated workers was recorded at 5.1, vis-a-vis the 2.24 accession rate caused by expansion.

High hiring rates were noted in the following industries: Construction, hotels and restaurants, wholesale and retail trade and related services, social and persona; service activities and real estate and renting.

A bigger percentage of separations (2.92 percent) during the covered period was employer-initiated, though nearly the same proportion of separations (2.55 percent) were employee-initiated.

The same survey showed that employment growth was confined to medium and large enterprises with 50 and more workers. Firms with less than 20 workers reported minimal employment growth.

With the current trend, Sto. Tomas expressed confidence that there would be higher employment growth in the last quarter of the year.

With the prevailing trend, she said, "we can reasonably look forward to more jobs towards the Christmas season due to strengthening economic activity."

Meanwhile, former senator Loren Legarda asked the Arroyo administration to focus on job-creation at home so that Filipinos, derided by some as the "groveling nomads of the world," do not have to risk life and limb to earn a living even in war-torn countries like Iraq.

"Many Filipinos are willing to go to Iraq rather than, as we say in the vernacular, mamamatay dito sa Pilipinas nang dilat ang mata dahil sa gutom (die here in the Philippines with eyes wide open from starvation)," Legarda said.

The vice presidential candidate of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) in the last elections, Legarda lamented that Filipinos now take on low-paying, high-risk jobs abroad since job creation as an avowed priority of the Arroyo administration remains a promise.