Fewer Metro workers displaced last year

Metro Manila seems to be slowly recovering from the adverse impact of the economic crisis.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has reported a 50-percent drop in the number of displaced workers from the National Capital Region (NCR).

DOLE data showed that Metro Manila recorded the highest reduction in number of displaced workers with 17,711 last the year compared to 35, 391 workers rendered jobless in 1999.

The dislocations were due to temporary layoffs or reduced working hours scheme adopted by 430 firms in an effort to cushion the impact of the economic slowdown.

Other regions recording a decline in retrenchment from January to November 2000 include Central Luzon, Central Mindanao, Bicol Region and Southern Mindanao.

Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said the number of displaced workers nationwide decreased by 40.9 percent or from 87,414 for the first 11 months of 1999 to 51,688 during the same period last year.

Firms resorting to closure also declined by 7.5 percent from 466 in 1999 to 431 last year while those companies which reduced their workforce dropped by 3.7 percent or from 1,683 to 1,620.

Laguesma said the data were based on the notices of layoffs and closures filed by commercial establishments before DOLE regional offices.

"We should not only look at the number of workers who are losing their jobs. We should remember that every year there are thousands of new entrants to the labor force," he explained. – Mayen Jaymalin