Jobless poll wrong, says DOLE

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has disputed the results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey which showed the country’s unemployment rate had risen to 24 percent, with some 9.7 million Filipinos out of a  job as of December 2011.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz pointed out that official statistics on employment, the quarterly Labor Force Survey of the National Statistics Office, showed a different picture.

“The country’s official unemployment rate, based on the LFS, is 7.0 percent, or 2.814 million, down by 45,000 from the 2.859 million unemployed in 2010, or 7.4 percent,” Baldoz said in a statement.

She said the December 3-7 SWS survey on employment and its results were not comparable to the LFS, which is the official reference of the government, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Labor Organization and other Philippine development partners.

“For one thing, the methodologies of the two surveys are different. The SWS has a respondent coverage of 1,200 aged 18 years and above, while the LFS has a respondent coverage of persons 15 years and above in 51,000 households,” she said.

“Historically, the SWS survey results on unemployment are higher than the LFS results,” she added.

Youth unemployment decreased

While it was true that unemployment was high among the 15-24 age bracket, the fact was that youth unemployment decreased from 51.0 percent in 2010 to 50.4 percent in 2011, or 1.417 million, the labor chief said.

By gender, unemployment among men dropped from 63.2 percent in 2010 to 63.0 percent in 2011, or 1.772 million, and slightly eased up among women, by 9,000 from 1.051 million in 2010 to 1.042 million in 2011.

For 2011, Baldoz said the domestic labor market performed better as the employment level rose by 3.2 percent from 2.9 percent in 2010, or 1.156 million in new employment generated. This number represents the average of the four rounds of the LFS conducted in January, April, July and October 2011.

“Growth in part-time employment, on the average, was registered at 6.3 percent, or 794,000; while full-time employment, which is one indicator of employment quality, grew by 1.5 percent, or 352,000. Another indicator of the quality of employment was the increase in wage and salary employment, which in 2011 expanded by 4.6 percent, or 911,000,” Baldoz said.

She conceded that underemployment was a major challenge in 2011, as the number of underemployed persons was recorded at 19.3 percent, or 7.163 million. This represented an increase of 0.8 percent, or 401,000.