It’s all over the news: there have been stampede-like situations in Mumbai and elsewhere in India over jobs.
There’s this video that showed applicants in Bharuch’s Ankelshwar in India trying to enter a hotel where a job interview was organized by the chemical firm Thermax Company for ten vacant positions. About 1,800 aspirants had turned up, and due to the overcrowding, a side railing at the hotel collapsed. No one had suffered serious injuries in the mini stampede that occurred, but hundreds of jobseekers jostled with each other, some of them falling from the elevated entrance of the hotel.
The incident cited above is not an isolated case. India’s jobs crisis was again made evident when more than 93,000 candidates recently applied for 62 “peon” posts in the Uttar Pradesh Police Department. While the job requirement had only minimum eligibility, some 3,700 PhD holders, 5,000 college graduates and 28,000 postgraduates applied for the positions. Jobseekers are willing to take on positions that are way below their qualifications, just to land a job.
Meantime, more than 25,000 applicants turned up at Mumbai airport last July 16 for 2,216 vacancies for airport loader posts at Air India. Just like in other places, a stampede-like situation happened at the Mumbai airport as applicants pushed each other to inch their way to the form counters.
This sorry situation in India brings to mind the present labor market in the Philippines, especially now that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will be facing the nation in the much-anticipated speech at the opening of Congress on Monday, July 22.
According to Dr. Claire Dennie S. Mapa, undersecretary and national statistician and civil registrar general, the country’s employment rate in May 2024 was estimated at 95.9 percent, higher than the estimated employment rate in May 2023 at 95.7 percent. In April 2024, the employment rate was posted at 96.0 percent.
In terms of magnitude, the number of employed individuals in May 2024 was registered at 48.87 million. This was higher than the estimated 48.26 million employed persons in May 2023 and 48.36 million in April 2024.
In May, 2024, the unemployment rate decreased to 4.1 percent, from 4.3 percent in the same month last year. In April 2024, the unemployment rate was registered at 4.0 percent.In terms of level, the number of unemployed persons in May 2024 was estimated at 2.11 million. This was lower than the number of unemployed persons in May 2023 at 2.17 million, but higher than the number of unemployed persons in April 2024 at 2.04 million.
Undersecretary Mapa said the labor force participation rate (LFPR) in May 2024 was registered at 64.8 percent, lower than the estimated LFPR in May 2023 at 65.3 percent. In April 2024, the LFPR was estimated at 64.1 percent. The reported LFPR in May 2024 translates to a total of 50.97 million Filipinos aged 15 years old and over who were in the labor force, or those who were either employed or unemployed. In May 2023, the number of individuals aged 15 years old and over who were in the labor force was 50.43 million, and 50.40 million in April 2024.
It should be noted that the underemployment rate in May 2024 decreased to 9.9 percent, from 11.7 percent in May 2023 and 14.6 percent in April 2024. In terms of magnitude, 4.82 million of the 48.87 million employed individuals expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work in May 2024.
The Philippine Statistics Authority chief said that by broad industry group, the services sector continued as the top sector in terms of the number of employed persons with a share of 60.1 percent of the 48.87 million employed persons. The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 20.8 percent and 19.1 percent of the employed persons, respectively.
The top five sub-sectors in terms of annual increase in the number of employed persons in May 2024 were the following: a. Construction (745 thousand); b. Administrative and support service activities (371 thousand); c. Manufacturing (347 thousand); d. Transportation and storage (292 thousand); and e. Public administration and defense; compulsory social security (276 thousand).
The sub-sectors that posted the highest annual decreases in the number of employed persons: a. Agriculture and forestry (-1.02 million); b. Fishing and aquaculture (-543 thousand); c. Arts, entertainment and recreation (-178 thousand); d. Real estate activities (-152 thousand); and e. Professional, scientific and technical activities (-83 thousand).
These data collated by the PSA should not remain as cold statistics, but rather, should be used by the economic managers of the Marcos administration as guide on their decision-making. For instance, which sectors of the economy should be given emphasis in the government’s jobs creation program.
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