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Monday, July 25, 2005
Region 12 employment up
THE number of employed persons in Region 12 (Soccsksargen Region) posted a slight increase during the last quarter of 2004 and the first few months of this year despite the continuing economic crisis in the country.
A report from the National Statistics Office (NSO) on the preliminary results of the 2005 round of labor force survey initially conducted in January cited that the number of employed persons rose to 1.395 million or an increase of 1.38 percent from last year's 1.376 million.
Rodolfo Mendoza, NSO Region 12 statistician aide, said the positive figures essentially reflect the movements in the economic sector of the region's four provinces and five cities.
Soccsksargen covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato and Sarangani and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Cotabato, Tacurong and Kidapawan.
Mendoza said the survey showed that there were at least 2.322 million individuals in the region that comprise the working age population or those who are already 15 years old and above.
He said the working age population increased by 75,000 individuals based on last year's 2.247 million.
Out of the 2.322 million working age population, he said some 1.554 million are considered to be "in the labor force" and 767,000 are not working or "out of the labor force," Mendoza said.
He said those classified as "out of the labor force" were individuals who are already in the working age but don't want to have a formal employment.
"This means that 1.554 million individuals are working or are willing to work. But only 1.395 million were able to obtain jobs and the remaining 159,000 were not as lucky," he explained.
Mendoza said the survey results showed a 2.30 percent increase in the number of persons who are classified to be "in the labor force" or from last year's 1.519 million to the current 1.554 million.
When converted in terms of employment rate, such figures show that the region posted 89.8 percent or a slight drop from last year's 90.6 percent.
The unemployment rate rose to 159,000 from last year's 143,000 or an increase of 0.8 percent. Last year's unemployment rate was recorded at 9.4 percent and eventually rose to 10.2 percent in the current year.
In terms of the participation rate of those "in the labor force," the region posted a decline of 0.7 percent or from 67.6 percent last year to the current 66.9 percent.
Mendoza added such figures mean that the number of persons who were able to do actual work, even for just an hour, has decreased. (Allen V. Estabillo)
For Bisaya stories from General Santos.Click here. (This section is updated every Monday)
(July 25, 2005 issue)
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