El Niño causes job losses in agri sector

MANILA (UPDATE 3) - The Philippines' unemployment rate climbed in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority said on Wednesday.

The jobless rate was seen at 3.9 percent in March, which was higher than the 3.5 percent seen in February.

This means there were 2 million unemployed Filipino workers in March, up from the 1.8 million jobless workers in February.

The underemployment rate, however, fell to 11 percent from 12.4 percent in February.

This means 5.39 million of the 49.15 million employed Filipinos were looking for additional work hours or extra jobs.

Agriculture and forestry posted the highest job losses at 881,000; followed by fishing and aquaculture at 449,000; and accommodation and food service activities at 118,000.

National Statistician and PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said the job losses in agriculture were related to the peak of the El Niño phenomenon which severely affected farms.

“Lumabas na yung report ng value production ng agriculture and fisheries at makikita natin na doon sa crops at sa fisheries, kasama na rin yung sa livestock ano, particularly hog farming, ay nagkaroon tayo ng pagbawas sa value production,” he noted.

“So nare-reflect doon sa ating value production in agriculture and fisheries at consistent naman yung datos dito sa employment, sa labor market statistics natin so yes, they were affected by the El Nino,” he said. 

(The report on value production for agriculture and fisheries is out, and we can see there that for crops and fisheries, and even livestock, particularly hog farming, value production fell. SO this reflects in our value production and even in our labor market statistics, that yes, they were affected by El Nino.)

For the Department of Agriculture, employment in the sector is expected to pick up by the second quarter as government projects for irrigation systems come in.

Better weather conditions are also expected to be an advantage for the sector.

“Bukod sa maka-recover tayo sa weather, nagte-tame ang effect ng El Niño, ‘yong ating mga programa at activities nornammy magkikic in ‘yan second at third quarter… First quarter, harvesting ‘yan eh. ‘Pag second quarter, lalaki ang employment dahil sa land preparation for rice and corn,” DA Spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa said. (around 12 mins of interview)

The services sector had the highest number of jobs, making up 61.4 percent of the total employment numbers, followed by agriculture at 20.5 percent and industry at 18.1 percent.

In terms of jobs added, wholesale and retail trade and the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles added the most jobs at 963,000; followed by manufacturing at 553,000; and public administration and defense and compulsory social security at 229,000.

Financial and insurance activities added 173,000 jobs, while administrative and support service activities added 140,000.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said they will continue to work to create more quality jobs for Filipinos.

 “We will focus on attracting job-generating investments from the private sector and scaling up social and physical infrastructure to improve our people’s employment prospects to achieve this goal,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in a statement.