National Economic and Development Authority-Davao Director Maria Lourdes Lim (Photo by Marlo Joshua Brua)
By Marlo Joshua Brua, Intern
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The overall employment rate in Davao region improved to 95.5 percent with 1.993 million employed individuals compared to the 94.2 percent with 1.924 million employed individuals in 2015.
National Economic and Development Authority-Davao Director Maria Lourdes Lim said Friday that Davao’s socio-economic achievements increased by 1.3 percent, attributing this to the stable economy of the region.
“Higher employment rate showed that the region’s growing labor force was adequately absorbed by our job market and could likewise be attributed to the growing market confidence that fueled higher private sectors initiative in 2016,” Lim said.
Speaking at the Kapehan sa PIA, the NEDA official lauded the region’s positive performance in employment compared to the national employment rate.
“Moreover, the region’s employment rate was higher than the national rate although we miss this by only a marginal term,” she said.
Lim added that the region’s underemployment rate declined by 2.3 percent to 16.7 percent from last year’s 19 percent.
But for Carlo Olalo, spokerson of militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno, NEDA’s numbers were true but he said “we should look what jobs are enlisted in there.”
“Ginaapil dira ang vendors, ginaapil ang dili sustainable na trabaho, seasonal workers, pakyawan, dli sya sustainable (vendors are counted, unsustainable jobs are included, seasonal workers, but those are not sustainable jobs),” Olalo said.
In the region, Olalo said that only 30 per cent of the working force are established, which means they are declared regular and enjoying benefits.
The labor leader also said that the 30 percent still do not have security of tenure as they do not have collective bargaining agreement with the company administration. (With a report from Earl O. Condeza/davaotoday.com)
