Employment level as well as its quality improved in April this year compared to the same month last year, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
The NEDA made this statement after the National Statistics Office (NSO) released the results of the latest Labor Force Survey showing an increase in the country’s employment rate to 92.8 percent from 92.0 percent in April 2010, and a decrease in the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent from last year’s 8.0 percent.
Based on the NSO survey, total employment generation for the period reached 1.41 million, higher than the 416,000 net employment in April 2010.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director-General Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr. said that the improvement in net employment was boosted by the agriculture sector, contributing 645,000 net workers to post an employment growth of 5.6 percent in April 2011.
“This supports the second quarter 2011 palay and corn production growth estimates of 14.2 percent and 70.9 percent, respectively, by the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics,” said Paderanga.
He also noted that the quality of employment in April this year improved. “This can be seen in the 5.0 percent increase of workers with wages and salaries, 3.5 percent rise of full-time workers, and the decrease of unemployed youth from 18.8 percent last year to 16.6 percent in April 2011,” he said.
Apart from the agriculture sector, the number of newly employed persons in the services sector numbered 632,000, or a 3.4 percent growth from last year. On the other hand, employment growth in the industry sector slowed down to 2.4 percent, or around 130,000 net employment, from last year’s high growth of 7.8 percent.
Paderanga also said that the 2.9 million unemployed persons this year was lower by around 228,000 persons compared to the same period last year. However, the underemployed, or those already working but still expressed the need for more work, went up from 6.3 million (17.8%) in April 2010 to 7.1 million (19.4%) in April 2011.
“While the labor market performance based on the April 2011 Labor Force Survey is considered favorable, the government must still continue to fast-track the implementation of programs and policies that help create employment and improve productivity,” said Paderanga.
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