Employment rate in Northern Mindanao drops 0.25%
-A A +ATuesday, September 18, 2012
A 0.25 PERCENT turndown in employment rate was recorded in Northern Mindanao region by the National Statistics Office in Northern Mindanao (NSO), from 96.01 percent in April 2011 to 95.76 percent in the same period this year, the National Economic and Development Authority in Northern Mindanao region (Neda) said.
This, despite over 50 thousand more persons were added in the labor force in the region as of April 2012 compared to the same period last year, indicating a 2.45 percent year-on-year increase, according to the recent census of the regional Statistics department.
This is due to a letdown in the employment market as it did not manage to cope with the increase in labor force providing only an additional 42.86 thousand jobs, making only a miniscule of 0.48 percentage points increase in the labor force participation rate of the region.
"In other words, there were just too many persons looking for work than there were jobs available in the market," the Neda interpreted.
Beauty Galendez, a degree holder, admitted having difficulties finding a job. After graduating, she considered herself fortunate to find one in her locality in Cagayan de Oro after five months scouting via job fairs conducted by different government offices. To have a job that does not fit her qualification prompted her to look for another job.
"When I finally found a job, as data encoder, I was very unsatisfied because I knew I was overworked and underpaid, so I resigned and here I am now back at square one," she sadly told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro in an interview.
Galendez is just one of the many graduates in the region still seeking decent job to note that the number of unemployed in the region is increasing.
In second quarter this year, the Neda said there were 88.7 thousand persons in Northern Mindanao who are unemployed. This figure is higher compared to the same period in 2011 of only 81.5 thousand, thus increasing the unemployment rate by 0.25 percent from 3.99 percent last year to 4.24 in 2012.
Published in the Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro newspaper on September 19, 2012.
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