Construction still top jobs generator, says DOLE

DESPITE registering the most number of labor displacements during the first of the year, the construction sector is still currently the country’s biggest job-generating industry, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique R. Tutay said the sector topped the July round of the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for industries with a net employment of over 100,000.

“Net employment for construction ” Tutay told the Businessmirror in a Viber message.

This, even if the sector suffered the biggest number of job losses during the first seven months of 2021 with 73,396 workers, based on DOLE’S latest displacement report.

Other industries with mass job losses during the same period include other service activities (40,661 workers); administrative and support service activities (28,996 workers); transportation and storage (24,639 workers); and manufacturing (23,594) workers.

“The construction sector remains strong [in terms of employment generation] since we know [government] funds are being poured in the Build, Build, Build [BBB] project,” Tutay said.

The BBB projects are the administration’s flagship infrastructure projects.

Tutay noted that since the start of the current administration in 2016, the number of workers in the construction sector rose from 3.4 million to 4.4 million as of July 2021.

Aside from the construction sector, Tutay said other key employment-generating industries with over 100,000 net employment are the administrative and support service activities; professional, scientific, and technical activities and manufacturing.

with this in mind, she said the government is currently trying to extend support to the said sectors, particularly construction and manufacturing, so they could cope with the business disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Among assistance provided to the industries is the vaccination of their workers, which was started by DOLE last week in partnership with the employers Confederation of the Philippines (ecop).

The government is set to administer over 450,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine to workers in the construction and manufacturing industry in exchange for their commitment to generate at least a million jobs this year.

Tutay lauded the companies which participated in the program since they committed to still pay their workers for the time they spent to get the vaccine.

She noted many employees were unable to get their vaccines since they fear they would have to forgo a day of work to line up in vaccination sites. “In this [vaccination] program, we ensure that the income of the workers will not be reduced,” Tutay said.