3.2% employment growth noted

THE Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (Bles) reported Sunday a 3.2-percent full year employment growth for 2011, equivalent to 1.156 million in new employment generated.

“Quality of employment also remained positive with a robust growth of 6.3 percent in full-time employment, equivalent to 794,000 employed persons; and a 4.6 percent increase or 911,000 employed persons in salary employment,” Bles records showed.

An attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), Bles said that as per data from the National Statistics Office (NSO), labor force in 2011 reached 40 million, 2.9 percent faster than the growth rate of 2.6 percent in 2010.

The services sector was mainly the source of growth at 3.8 percent or 713,000 new employment; agriculture, fishery and forestry at 0.7 percent or 310,000; and industry at 2.4 percent or 131,000. “Employment growth in the industry sector, however, slowed down compared to the 6-percent growth it registered in 2010.”

Corresponding to the increase in the employment level, unemployment decreased from 7.4 percent in 2010 to only 7 percent in 2011.

Dole said that the total number of unemployed persons in 2011 was reduced by 45,000 to 2.814 million or 0.4 percent lower than the 2.859 million unemployed registered in 2010.

Most of the unemployed are aged 15 to 24 years old numbering about 1.4187 million. “Of the unemployed, 1.268 million were high school graduates or undergraduates while 42 percent were college graduates or undergraduates.”

Underemployment, meanwhile, remained a major concern as the number of underemployed persons rose by 401,000 to reach 7.163 million or an underemployment rate of 19.3 percent, the Dole noted.

As per the NSO, underemployed are those employed workers who expressed desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, an additional job or to have a new job with longer working hours. (CGC)