Investment pledges rise in first 9 months

MANILA -- Around 187,748 jobs are expected to be created as investment pledges in the country’s seven major investment promotion agencies (IPAs) rose in the first nine months of the year.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the PHP626.24 billion investment pledges from both foreign and Filipino companies in January to September this year will create 187,748 jobs in different industries.

Job generation from project registrations in IPAs was higher by 28.7 percent this year from 145,917 expected employment in last year’s pledges worth PHP411.17 billion.

Largest number of jobs will be created in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply activities with 51,267 jobs to be generated by the industry.

This was followed by real estate activities which were anticipated to generate 41,835 jobs; manufacturing sector to create 37,039 jobs; administrative and support services with 33,329 jobs; and agriculture, forestry, and fishing with 7,651 jobs.

Jobs to be generated by investment pledges in IPAs are expected to augment employment rate for the coming quarters as employment rate in October 2017 slightly slid to 95 percent from 95.3 percent in the same month last year.

Unemployment rate for October went up to 5.0 percent this year from 4.7 percent in 2016.

On the other hand, underemployment slowed down to 15.9 percent in October 2017 from 18 percent in the previous year.