Increase in jobs with poor quality work alarming — IBON

Increase in jobs with poor quality work alarming — IBON

605,000 worked less than 20 hours and 108,000 who were classified ‘with a job but not at work’

The Aquino government should pay attention to the nature of jobs created in 2014, as these are largely comprised of part-time work, research group IBON said.

The number of employed Filipinos increased by 1.02 million last year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), but IBON pointed out that much of the jobs available are of poor quality. According to government data, part-time work (those who worked less than 40 hours) accounted for 918,000 jobs created or 90% of the increase in employment. The number includes 605,000 who worked less than 20 hours and 108,000 who were classified “with a job but not at work”.

Said increment also included 407,000 self-employed workers and 292,000 who worked without pay — meaning that 699,000 or 68% of employment created was either in the informal sector or unpaid family work, with only an additional 329,000 in wage and salary work. This raised the number of self-employed workers to 10.5 million and those who worked without pay to 4.0 million in 2014.

… a huge total of 11.2 million unemployed and underemployed Filipinos in 2014

IBON also noted that the largest part of the increment was not in production sectors with 48% in construction, trade, and accommodation and food services and 7% in administrative and support services.

In terms of wages, the research group said that 77% of the additional employment was in sectors whose average daily basic pay is less than the already low national average of Php355.89 as of April 2014. These are jobs created in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, trade, hotel and restaurants, domestic help, among others.

The Philippines is in its worst jobs crisis in history, according to IBON. The research group, seeking to correct for government’s change in definition of employment, estimates 4.3 million unemployed, 6.9 million underemployed, an employment rate of 10.2% and a huge total of 11.2 million unemployed and underemployed Filipinos in 2014.

According to IBON, the alarming number of poor quality work in 2014 confirms the inability of the economy to create enough, stable and meaningful jobs for the labor force, IBON said. It called on government to address fundamental problems in the economy that hinder the creation of sufficient and quality work in the country.

Ibon.org