Better employment prospects seen in 2010

The first quarter of 2010 may bring better news to more Filipinos next year as a poll by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that more business enterprises are looking at hiring more workers on the back of the government’s bid for reconstruction and rehabilitation and the improving global economic conditions. The BSP’s Business Expectations Survey (BES) for the fourth quarter showed that the employment outlook for the first quarter continued to be favorable for all sectors particularly for the construction and services sectors. Rosabele Guerrero, director of the BSP’s Department of Economic Statistics (DES), said the survey’s employment outlook index improved to 8.7 percent in the fourth quarter of the year from a contraction of 1.4 percent in the same quarter last year. The employment outlook index, however, was slightly lower than the 9.4 percent registered in the third quarter of the year. “The employment outlook for the first quarter remained positive, albeit slightly lower than the previous quarter but higher compared to a year ago," Guerrero said. This would result to a higher volume of business activity index to 27.9 percent in the fourth quarter of the year from 1.6 percent in the same quarter last year. She added that all sectors particularly the construction sector remained optimistic for the first quarter of next year. Business sentiment of the construction sector surged to 43 percent in the fourth quarter of the year from 9.1 percent in the same quarter last year followed by the services sector that surged to 40.3 percent from 3.9 percent. The sentiment of the wholesale and retail trade sector, on the other hand, jumped to 32.3 percent from a slump of 5.1 percent while that of the industry sector improved to 26.3 percent from a negative growth of 1.3 percent. Respondents attributed their improved optimism to the expected reconstruction and rehabilitation activities arising from the damages caused by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng as well as the continuing government infrastructure spending to boost economic growth. The government is set to complete a P330-billion Economic Resiliency Plan within the year aimed at boosting the slackening domestic output due to the global economic meltdown. For next the year, economic managers pegged the country’s growth at between 2.6 percent and 3.6 percent next year from this year’s target of between 0.8 percent and 1.8 percent. - GMANews.TV