ADB sees job woes continuing

MANILA, Philippines — The government should build up on better labor market programs as the pandemic would have longer scarring effects on the country’s labor force even in a post-COVID era, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

In its latest blog, the Manila-based multilateral lender said an improved labor market is needed to aid workers and enterprises make the transition as the economy rebounds moving forward.

ADB country director Kelly Bird and economists Cristina Lozano and Teresa Mendoza warned that the change in the employment composition is seen persisting in the medium to long term.

“Workers in the Philippines will be facing a challenging next few years as the country rebounds from the pandemic,” they said.

ADB argued that the lockdowns since last year have created a bigger drop in formal employment relative to informal employment, which means generally less stable employment activities and lower quality jobs have been created.

Some 1.7 million wage jobs in the private and public sector have been lost due to the pandemic, while nearly 450,000 workers have shifted to informal and precarious or uncertain jobs with compressed earnings.

“The pandemic could create long lasting effects on employment. Put simply, this temporary large shock to the economy might produce a persistently lower employment rate even after the economy has started to grow again,” the ADB experts said.

Pre-pandemic, the Philippines had been enjoying its longest economic and job expansion ever as wage and salary employment grew at an average of 4.6 percent annually from 2015 to 2019.

However, gains were wiped out since last year as economic activities were halted and businesses were forced to either downscale operations or shut down permanently.

ADB also cautioned that the move toward digital transformation would further exacerbate the skills mismatch in the labor market.

This as companies modify their business models to rely more on technology, thereby reshaping their workforce and the types of skills demanded by employers.

To address the long term impact of employment problems in the country, ADB said the government should focus on wage and hiring subsidies, workplace skills funding schemes, industry-led apprenticeship programs, and unemployment insurance.