Virus not the only cause of youth unemployment

Experience is not always a must in personnel hiring. Companies big and small also hunt for youths trainable in sales and technicals.

The C-19 pandemic has disadvantaged younger workers, however.Being a huge chunk of the labor force, they are hardest hit in the resulting economic crunch. As bosses scale down, shorter tenured employees – mostly youths – are laid off, first in first out.

A million Filipinos aged 15-24 will lose their jobs. That’s in a scenario of only yearlong crisis, the Asian Development Bank and International Labor Organization forecast. And that’s if they presently are employed at all. Delayed education also works against youthful jobseekers, the ADB and ILO say.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported 7.3 million total job losses so far. A July survey by the Social Weather Stations had 27.3 million workers, aged 21 and up, saying they lost livelihoods.

*      *      *

The 1.42 million college grads of the last two school years have not had enough chance at job seeking. Those who finished in April 2019 were still preparing for on-job traineeships when the coronavirus struck in December. Those of April 2020 never got to apply for placements, as the country was locked down starting March.

More so shut off were the first high-school grads under the new K+12 curriculum (Kindergarten plus 12 years’ basic schooling). Majority was aiming for courses under the free public college program that began last year. But for health precautions, campuses won’t open till October. A few had wanted to land jobs but were overtaken too by the pandemic and economic crisis.

*      *      *

A skewed labor market also strains youth joblessness. “Jobs mismatch” often is blamed for the oversupply of grads in some fields and undersupply in others. Some employers take advantage. For years physical therapists have had to pay their way into future hospital jobs via months-long free labor. Nurses literally were charged “entrance fees” into such unsalaried slots. Products of four-year BS Hotel and Restaurant Management end up as chambermaids and waiters during “apprenticeships”. Alongside them are counterparts from BS Tourism.

Meanwhile there’s shortage of construction manpower: master carpenters, electricians, plumbers, painters, masons, welders and other artisans. But the pandemic has forced into vacation many such youthful specialists.

*      *      *

Now being studied is how political dynasties depress youth employment. Clansmen take turns or simultaneously sit in elective and appointive positions. They – 163 families, as of the 2019 balloting – are able to control regional, provincial, city and municipal economies.

It is no secret that senators, congressmen and national agency bigwigs are able to channel multibillion-peso pork barrels into their locales, with kickbacks, of course. In the locales wait more kinsmen to use the public funds for road and waterworks onto personal estates, resorts and businesses.

They even own the hardware stores, gasoline stations and transports that supply the public projects. Competitors are shut out. Local permits simply are withheld from political rivals and independent entrepreneurs.

As the political oligarchs choke local economies, youth workers cannot find gainful employment. If they don’t end up as druggies, they enlist as the politicians’ gofers and private army men. There’s little upward mobility in that.

Filipinos know who the political dynasts are: 88 in Luzon, 29 in the Visayas, 44 in Mindanao, and two in multiple regions. If young workers do not advance in life, they know whom to blame. Still they keep electing them, for campaigns are the only brisk livelihoods every three years.?

*      *      *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Exposés-Investigative-Reporting-Clean-Government-ebook/dp/B00EPX01BG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jarius+bondoc&qid=1597803330&sr=8-1

Paperback: https://www.anvilpublishing.com/?s=Jarius+bondoc or at National Bookstores.

*      *      *

Gotcha archives: www.philstar.com/columns/134276/gotcha