Over half of the new jobs created as reported in the April 2007 Labor Force Survey (LFS) are low in quality and merely reflect how dire the country’s employment situation has become, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

BY IBON Foundation
LABOR WATCH
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 19, June 17-23, 2007

Over half of the new jobs reported as of April 2007 Labor Force Survey (LFS) are low in quality and merely reflect how dire the country’s employment situation has become.

IBON research head Sonny Africa said that of the net increase in jobs of more than one million reported in the LFS, two-thirds are in unpaid family work (525,000) and in domestic household help (148,000). These are among the lowest-earning jobs, and are sometimes even unpaid labor, according to Africa.

The sustained attack on the economy’s most productive sectors through the government’s economic globalization policies continued to erode domestic manufacturing, as shown by declining employment in the sector. The manufacturing sector shed 105,000 jobs during the survey period, he said.

He added that the majority of these new jobs represent workers unable to find jobs in the cities (unemployment in the National Capital Region is 12.5%, the highest among all the regions) and are forced to return to the countryside and its backward agricultural production.

The poor quality of jobs created underscores the hollowness of the 6.9% GDP growth hyped by the administration, said Africa. The economy’s productive sectors are deteriorating and Filipinos are being forced into low-quality, low-skilled, low-productivity work– if not outright forced abroad. At the same time, it may also be showing how remittances from the country’s overseas workers are apparently not enough for families to survive on.

The dire jobs situation, in which the government trumpets the creation of new jobs which are actually substandard even as nearly two out of every ten employed workers continue to look for more work due to low wages, remains the greatest challenge for the Arroyo administration, Africa said. IBON Foundation/posted by(Bulatlat.com)

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