Philippines Jobless rate Alarming! 10 reasons: Many jobs but pino's doesn't want to work?

Bonifacio Global City (BGC) Taguig, Manila, Philippines - image: pilipinohomes.com

Philippine Unemployment Rate ASEAN’s Highest, but Why?

Even though recent years have seen rapid economic growth in the Republic of the Philippines,  a high unemployment rate has persisted for quite a while in this sprawling Southeast Asian nation with a population of over 100 million people.

Under President Benigno Aquino who has been in office since 2010, the unemployment rate has fallen. The last reported figure was at the rate of 6.4% during the second quarter of this year, 0.6% less than the 7% reported a year earlier. However, the progress has been slow and unstable with the Philippines still having the highest unemployment rate in the ASEAN region.

There are many reasons for this. Invest Asian citing top reasons based on research.

" Main one being that the country’s population is growing faster than the rate at which jobs are being created"

In three of the past five years, official statistics show that the number of people entering the job market has been greater than the number of jobs created.

The conundrum highlights the difficulty and complexity of spreading the benefits of economic growth and points out that they have yet to trickle down to more deprived areas of the nation.

Filipinos Just Aren’t Working

Another reason is even more alarming. There is relatively lower working population compared to neighboring countries. This means that even if the unemployment rate falls, it does not ensure maximum productivity of the country.

As mentioned, the participation in the labor force remains relatively low. But what is it in quantifiable numbers?

"Only about 65% of the population aged 15 and above is looking for work "

The number being one of the lowest in the region. To put the number into perspective, the numbers in Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia are 78%, 72%, and 68% respectively.

One possible explanation for this low labor force participation percentage is that there is a higher value placed on further education in the Philippines. What this means is that young Filipinos typically spend some more time in college before entering the labor market, directly contributing to the low participation rate. The citizens of the other countries in the region enter the workforce much earlier.

Not Enough Good Jobs?

Yet another alarming reason could be the low quality of jobs available. In 2014, less than half of workers – in both formal and informal employment – were in what were described as paid jobs. Of the rest, about a fourth were self-employed with no guaranteed income and a tenth were in their family business working on farms or other businesses where they typically received food and lodging but no real cash, according to official statistics.

Former budget minister and current economist at the University of the Philippines, Benjamin Diokno, says that this relatively large number of unpaid workers – about 4 million people – “bloats” the ranks of the employed and makes the unemployment rate seem less serious that it really is.

However, such unpaid workers are not the only ones feeling held back.

In a government survey, 18% of workers said that they would like to work longer hours or get an extra job. Only 35% of these worked 40 hours or more a week.

The Philippine government, in an effort to mirror the success of its Asian neighbors, is looking to improve the quality of jobs available by ramping up employment in manufacturing. But it has had little success so far, hindered by issues such as higher wages, limited infrastructure and red tape, which make the country less competitive than its ASEAN peers.

Their lack of success is proven by the fact that only 16.5% of workers were in industrial jobs in the second quarter of 2015.

The country’s uneven employment market has traditionally led millions of Filipinos to seek better-paying jobs overseas.  One out of every 10 Filipinos works abroad, sending billions of dollars in remittances home and  helping to drive the country’s consumption-driven domestic economy – but doing little to promote employment.

There does not seem to be an end (at least in the near future) to the high unemployment rate problem that the Philippines faces.- Invest Asian

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#AkoSiDaniel Campaign Aims to Empower Children in the Philippines Through Education

#AkoSiDaniel Campaign Aims to Empower Children in the Philippines Through Education

As another academic year gets into full swing in many countries in the Northern Hemisphere and some parts of the Southern Hemisphere, so too does an education campaign called #AkoSiDaniel in the Philippines. With the aim of getting 1.2 million primary-age out-of-school children in the country into schools and learning, the cause is making headlines with the support of local and international youth leaders, nonprofit organizations, and celebrities united to bring hope to young Filipinos living in poverty.

Inspired by nine-year old Daniel Cabrera of Cebu and the global Up For School movement, #AkoSiDaniel, meaning "I am Daniel," was launched in July 2015 by The Philippines Foundation in partnership with international initiative A World at School and American crowdfunding company Crowdrise.

A few weeks before, the photo of Daniel studying on a makeshift desk by a McDonald's underneath a lamp post went viral, drawing the attention of online and on-the-ground communities who mobilized to support him and his mother. As a result of their collaboration, they raised over 230,000 Philippine pesos, equivalent to approximately 5,300 U.S. dollars, as well as scholarships that will be financial assistance for his living expenses and schooling.

In the spirit of their crowdfunding project, #AkoSiDaniel is anchored to a digital platform, AkoSiDaniel.org. Through this microsite, people across the world can sign the Up For School Philippines petition and donate to The Philippines Foundation, which will support programs devoted to increasing access to quality education for children in the Philippines.

At a forum this past May 2015, Min Jeong Kim, Head of the Global Education First Initiative Secretariat, stressed the importance of innovative funding to education. Therefore, partnerships such as AkoSiDaniel.org are imperative for making a positive difference in the lives of youth like Daniel, because, unfortunately, Daniel's plight is only one among many. In the Philippines, poverty, natural disasters, conflict, and shortages in education resources hinder children and their family from pursuing and persisting in school.

These challenges have placed the Philippines on a list of nations yet to achieve United Nations Millennium Development Goal 2, which, in 2000, set a global mission to achieve universal primary education by the end of 2015. Today, there are around 59 million primary-age children who are unable to realize their potential through education. As a result, governments have been mobilizing talent and treasure to set an agenda that will afford their young populations an education.

To this end, the Philippine government released its own framework for action to accelerate and sustain its efforts in expanding access to primary schooling, in time for approval of the Sustainable Development Goals at the upcoming United Nations Summit in late September 2015, which will call for inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

With only a month left until the historic conference, #AkoSiDaniel joins the global Up For School coalition bringing hope to children living in difficult conditions, deprived of pencils, books, teachers, and schools. Supporters and strangers alike can join in solidarity by going to AkoSiDaniel.org, signing the petition, donating, and raising awareness among family and friends on social media and in-person. Now is the time to empower current and future generations through education.

Benedict Joson is A World at School Global Youth Ambassador for education supporting The Philippines Foundation and #AkoSiDaniel campaign. - Huffing post

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