Jobless rate eases; 2.8M Pinoys had no jobs in Jan

About 2.8 million Filipinos were jobless in January, slightly lower than the 2.9-million estimate last year, the government said on Tuesday. "The unemployment rate in January declined to 7.3 percent from 7.7 percent posted in January last year," the National Statistics Office said in a statement. Among the regions, the National Capital Region posted a double-digit jobless rate of 10.8 percent. According to the NSO, more males (64.6 percent) were without jobs than females (35.4%). Five out of 10 jobless persons were aged 15–24 years, while a third were 25–34 years old. A third of the unemployed were high school graduates, a fifth were college undergraduates and another fifth were college graduates. Meanwhile, underemployed Filipinos — employed persons who want to work longer hours — reached 7.1 million or an underemployment rate of 19.7 percent. Around 4 million or 57 percent of the total worked less than 40 hours during the reference week. Those who worked for 40 hours or more accounted for 41.3 percent. The government said most of the underemployed were working in agriculture (46.7 percent) and services (39 percent). The underemployed in the industry sector accounted for 14.3 percent. The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) earlier said some 15 million "quality jobs" had to be created over the next five years if the Philippines is to catch up with its more developed neighbors. Lowering the unemployment rate to the healthier East Asian average requires the creation of 13.6-15.2 million such jobs, a study commissioned by the council found. Such jobs must be secure, deliver a fair income, and provide personal development and social protection to families, said the study by Ateneo de Manila University economists. The annual target is more than double the 1.3 million committed for 2009 by the government, business groups and the academe after a multisectoral forum in February last year. That list included overseas positions and temporary jobs under the government’s emergency employment program. — N.P. Aquino, GMANews.TV