Number of jobless in C. Visayas dips

CEBU CITY – The unemployment rate in Central Visayas for October slid to 4.1 percent from the 5.1 percent recorded in the same month last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) noted.

This means there are roughly 136,000 jobless individuals in the region, compared to last year’s 143,000.

Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Central Visayas Officer-in-Charge Regional Director Cyril Ticao attributed the drop to the region’s “economic boom.”

“By economic boom, we mean that there are lots of investors that continue to pledge in the region. There are many tourists that continue to visit here which leads to the opening of new hotels, restaurants and construction, thus, more job opportunities,” Ticao told Manila Bulletin Friday.

He predicted the unemployment rate is to fall further as the year comes to a close.

The national unemployment rate rose slightly in October: 5.0 percent, compared to 4.7 percent in the same month last year.

This means there are 2.2 million Filipinos who are jobless, compared to 2 million last year.

PSA also noted that there were 893,000 underemployed individuals, fewer than last year.

The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) said the number of underemployed dropped despite the decrease in total employment to 41.6 million from 0.3 percentage points from a year ago, and the employment rate being down to 95 percent from 95.3 percent in 2016.

Also, the number of remunerative and stable wage and salaried workers rose by about 624,000, while vulnerable employment (proportion of self-employed and unpaid family workers to total employment) dropped further to 33.9 percent in October 2017, an improvement from 36.3 percent a year ago.

“The lower underemployment rate and the higher proportion of wage and salary workers indicate improvement in the quality of employment in the country,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said in a statement.

“Regular conduct of job fairs and provision of livelihood assistance have contributed to the improvement of underemployment especially in areas outside of the National Capital Region. This is a good indicator that our efforts in the lagging regions are starting to take effect,” he added.