INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ jobless rate soared to a three-year high in April even though the nation has the fastest-growing economy in Asia, official data showed Tuesday.
President Benigno Aquino III insisted the rise to 7.5 percent was due to temporary problems in the farming sector, but economists said it highlighted huge challenges facing the government as it strives to fight poverty.
“The high unemployment rate casts doubts on the robustness and inclusiveness of recent growth statistics,” University of the Philippines economics professor Benjamin Diokno, a former budget minister, told AFP.
The unemployment rate in April was up from 7.1 percent in January. Another 19.2 percent were listed as “underemployed”, or part-timers who work for less than 40 hours a week.
Aquino said a weather-dictated delay in this year’s planting season, which meant many of those surveyed declared they were temporarily out of work, caused the rise in the figure.
“This was offset by improvements in the industry and service sectors. Wage and salary workers working full-time increased in both sectors,” he said.
The farming sector lost 624,000 jobs, while services added 380,000 and industry 224,000, according to the National Statistics Office.
Nevertheless, the rise occurred as the nation’s economy grew an annualized 7.8 percent in the first three months of the year, the fastest pace since Aquino came to power in 2010.
It eclipsed China’s 7.7 percent in the same quarter for the strongest growth in the region.
The Philippines has long had one of the greatest rich-poor divides in Asia, and Aquino has said one of the top priorities of his six-year term is to create a more inclusive economic growth model.
Economist Astro del Castillo, of Manila securities firm First Grade Finance, said despite genuine government efforts, job creation had yet to keep pace with the huge annual turnover of fresh graduates churned out by schools.
“This cannot be achieved overnight,” he told AFP.
To speed up job creation, the government must address issues that deter businesses from investing in the manufacturing and industrial sectors, such as high electricity rates, del Castillo said.
Diokno also cautioned that official data underestimated the true jobless picture, since it only included those actively looking for work but not those who had stopped trying.
Comment
NY, 11 June 2013
Here is a piece of news that is disturbing at least.
Nobody questions the fact that the Philippines' first quarter GNP grew at the astounding rate of 7.8 percent, beating even China's 7.7 percent. Many people have rushed to speculate that the Philippines is on the way to becoming an "economic tiger," just like Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea!
The fly in the ointment is that even with that spectacular quarterly growth in GNP, the country's JOBLESS RATE is reported to have SOARED likewise! And this jobless rate is reported not to include those Filipinos who have given up looking for jobs which are not there for them.
There must be something seriously wrong somewhere--and President Aquino and his economic managers seem at a loss to put their finger on it. The explanation they have put forward seems lame.
Why can't they admit that the explosive annual rate of growth of the population which doubles it every 35 years is at the root of the problem? Or are they clueless? Or dismissive? They must face the stark fact that the country is able to generate only so many jobs a year, but that the annual increment in people joining the labor force is more, much more than that. Simple Arithmetic, isn't it? And to that annual deficit you still have to add the numbers that are already in the jobless pool.
Has any of them read that recent column of Solita Collas-Monsod in the Philippine Daily Inquirer commenting in passing that one Filipino woman had 24 children? And that another one had 18?
The Philippines' TOTAL FERTILITY RATE is still at a sky-high 3.27. Compare that to China's 0.57 and you begin to have an inkling of why the Philippines continues to earn the unflattering reputation as "The Sick Man of Asia."
Are the high and mighty justices of the Supreme Court aware of the problem? Why did they agree to delay implementation of the Reproductive Health Law for 3 months, supinely yielding to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines?
Mariano Patalinjug
MarPatalinjug@aol.com
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