Current Situation of Young Workers in the Philippines -A Short Talk delivered by Salma Jayne A. Tamano Presidential Staff Officer I National Youth Commission

Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the National Statistics Office (NSO) - October 2009 The country’s labor force based grew by 3.1 percent ( million) from million in October 2008 to million the following year. The labor force participation rate (LFPR) increased by a mere 0.3 percentage point from its year ago rate of 63.7 percent.

Employment level as reported in the same period, similarly expanded by 2.7 percent or 944,000 from million to million. Almost all regions posted increases in employment Region XII recording the highest at 5.6 percent (+87,000), followed by Region IV-B and NCR at 5.1 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively.

Both part-time workers (worked less than 40 hours a week) and full-time workers (worked 40 hours or more a week) increased by 5.5 percent (+670,000) and 0.7 percent (+154,000), respectively.

Wage and salary workers posted an increase of 5.9 percent ( million) from million in October 2008 to million in October On the other hand, both self- employed workers and unpaid family workers decreased by 0.3 percent (- 33,000) and 2.4 percent (-105,000), respectively.

Employment in service sector increased by 6.6 percent ( million). Also, industry sector employment went up by 1.4 percent (+72,000) while those in agriculture declined by 2.0 percent (-250,000).

Compared to October 2008, unemployment rate for October 2009 increased by 0.3 percentage point, i.e., from 6.8 percent to 7.1 percent. By region, highest unemployment rate was recorded by NCR at 11.8 percent followed by Region IV-A (9.8%) and Region I (9.3%).

Meanwhile, the unemployment among the male workforce grew by 8.7 percent whereas those among females by 5.8 percent. By age group, the highest growth rate was 17.3 percent for ages years old.

Also, unemployment rates for the youth population in April 2009 registered lower rates than their year ago rates.

National Youth Assessment Study unemployed youth: 49% of 3.5 million total unemployed population Youth workers: low income, limited access to social security & health protection, less pay for equal work compared to adult workers Workers’ rights: poor bargaining power, limited protection by unions

National Youth Assessment Study Casualization: temporary employment, lack of security of tenure, subcontracting Work in hazardous occupations Exploitation by employers, abuse of OFW women Lack of competencies, skills & positive work attitudes among job seekers

Challenges Ahead

Government How can government generate more jobs for the unemployed? How can government protect the welfare of young workers?

NYC’s Policy Statements on Youth Employment The entrepreneurial spirit of the Filipino youth should be cultivated. (hey should learn to be job-providers, not merely job-seekers.) The rights of all young workers should be protected (right pay, security of tenure, safe working conditions, right treatment of employer, continuous learning)

Government should: 1. Make economic reforms as well as policies and programs that will stabilize the economy. 2. Lessen, if not eradicate, peace and order problems of the country 3. Attract more business investors for the creation of more jobs 4. Conduct capability-building trainings for skills development of young workers.

Opportunities

Government Programs for the Unemployed Youth

Negosyo-Kart by DOLE To provide decent livelihood mainly for the benefit of marginal workers in the country’s informal sector, specifically the ambulant workers in major cities of the country. To provide the vendors with services that will enable them to increase, upgrade and diversify their products and services, and market the same to more buyers or customers.

Negosyo-Kart by DOLE Each vendor-beneficiary is provided with a total of P15,000 in assistance including a vending cart and accessory livelihood tools costing P12,000, along with working capital amounting to P2,500 and training assistance worth P500.

Government Internship Program by the National Youth Commission NYC arranges for other government agencies and private companies to hire out-of-school and/or unemployed youth as interns who receive a monthly stipend and some trainings form the institutions they serve in.

E.O. 788 Creation of a National Service Corps - for the unemployed or underemployed skilled youth or college graduates who will undertake a national service commitment focused on education and community service programs with a modest stipend. - implemented by DepEd and DSWD

E.O. 788 Creation of a Youth Conservation Corps - for the unskilled or less educated youth who will undertake a national service commitment focused on environmental and infrastructure programs with a modest stipend. - implemented by DENR, PNP, DPWH

E.O. 788 The DOLE has incorporated their own program for OSYs in E.O This is the Kabataan ITO (Information Technology Opportunities) Unemployed youth who are literate in Information Technology are tapped in a government-initiated earning and learning project in the hope of improving IT literacy among the disadvantaged members of the youth sector through free mentoring sessions and supervised Internet access to online government programs and services.

E.O. 788 The Kabataan ITO, under the auspices of the Department of Labor and Employment, seeks to provide workers in the informal economy online access to government programs and services.

TESDA PROGRAMS PGMA Scholarships- The PGMA-TWSP is a joint project of TESDA, DOLE and the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Job Creation (OPAJC) with partners from private sector organizations and associations and private and public education and training institutions. The Project aims to provide 100,000 full or partial scholarship grants to high school graduates, employed persons but ready for a career change, the underemployed or unemployed, with or without experience, and willing to undergo training in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry (call center agents, medical/legal transcriptionists, animators, software developers) and other industries with critical skills requirements such as aviation, metals and engineering, medical tourism, hotel and restaurant, agri-business, and services.

Civil Service Commission Local Scholarship Programs for graduate and undergraduate programs for government employees.

Dept. of Science & Technology Undergraduate and graduate courses focused on Science and Technology

There are available opportunities. It is just a matter of accessing them.

Maraming Salamat Po!!!