1.4M agri job losses hike unemployment rate

Over a million job losses in the agriculture sector raised the unemployment rate to 5 percent in October even as underemployment fell to its lowest level in over a decade on improving quality of jobs, the government reported on Tuesday.

The Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) October 2017 Labor Force Survey showed that the jobless rate slightly rose from 4.7 percent in the same month last year.

“Agriculture, accounting for 25 percent of the country’s total employment, shed around 1.4 million employment (down 12.1 percent). The said sector contributed to the setback in the overall employment rate in October,” the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said in a statement.

Neda chief and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said there was a “need to closely monitor the agriculture sector to ensure that those engaged in agriculture are highly productive and resilient, and are increasingly linked to the industry and services sectors.”

“The agriculture sector is very vulnerable to risks including natural and man-made hazards. The government should strengthen early warning systems and social protection programs for the sector to ensure resiliency of agricultural communities,” Pernia said.

To protect agricultural jobs, the Neda chief said that “the sector requires sustainable productivity improvements by promoting value addition, product diversification, and accelerating local infrastructure provision like irrigation systems and farm-to-market roads.”

Despite the job losses in agriculture, employment in industry and services grew 5.2 percent and 4 percent year-on-year, respectively, in October, the Neda said.

Underemployment, meanwhile, dropped to 15.9 percent in October from 18 percent a year ago, preliminary estimates of the PSA showed.

The PSA defines the underemployed as “employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours.”