Employment rate hit 93.1% in April 2012

According to the Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis, Inc. (IDEA) latest Newsbriefs, a weekly digest produced by IDEA, Inc. to highlight the most recent national and international economic events,  based on the data from the National Statistics Office, out of 40.6 million people in the country's labor force recorded in April last year, 93.1 percent were employed. This put the number of employed individuals at around 37.8 million. In the same month in 2011, the employment rate appeared to be lower at 92.8 percent. Among the regions, Region II or Cagayan Valley posted the highest employment rate at 97.2 percent, trailed narrowly by Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) at 97.1 percent. On the contrary, the National Capital Region (NCR) established the lowest employment rate at 89.6 percent.

With the employment rate at 93.1 percent, 6.9 percent of the Filipinos in the labor force were unfortunately unemployed in April 2012. This placed the number of unemployed people at approximately 2.8 million. For every 10 unemployed, five were in the age group 15 to 24 years, while three were in the age group 25 to 34, per IDEA.

Likewise, per same published report, as of April 2013, expenditures on infrastructure projects were up an annual 44.6 percent due to the fact that government disbursements kept on improving. According to the Budget department, infrastructure spending summed to Php75.2 billion from January to April this year, higher than the Php52 billion established last year. Moreover, the said amount was equal to 25.3 percent of full-year infrastructure spending program of Php279.1 billion.

Furthermore, in the previous month, overall increase in price level was stable at 2.6 percent, an indication of development which gave Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas room to maintain the policy rates steady for the rest of 2013. Based on the report made by the National Statistics Office, inflation rate in May was at par with 2.6 percent notched in April and down from the 2.9 percent recorded the year before. It reached the 2.6 percent median forecast in a poll and was inside the central bank's projected range of 2.2 to 3.1 percent for the month.

On the other hand, Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported that satisfaction of the general public with the Aquino administration stays "very good" although it declines slightly from the end of the previous year. A survey conducted in the first quarter revealed that 68 percent of the respondents satisfied and 15 percent dissatisfied with the performance of the government, which gives a net +53 rating, reduced by four points from the +57 attained in the month of December in the year earlier. After all, the particular record proves higher than those of all past administrations, as noted by SWS.

Lastly, according to the researchers of IDEA, the petition for an Php85-per-day increase in minimum wages in the National Capital Region (NCR) made by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has been discarded after the chief of the regional wage board stated that the plea had been filed within the one-year ban. According to the statement of Alan M. Macaraya, director of the Labor department's Metro Manila office and wage board chairman, under the law, it is not allowed to entertain any petition within the said period. Without further ado, the TUCP would refile the petition, which was then acknowledged by Mr. Macaraya and he noted that a decision could be issued later this month.

Editor's Note: For comments, rejoinders and questions on credit and collection matters, Mr. Ed F. Limtingco can be reached at [email protected].