BACOLOD CITY — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Western Visayas is optimistic about the employment situation in the region after posting a rate slightly higher than the national average in the first four months of 2018.
As of April this year, employment rate in Region 6 (Western Visayas) was pegged at 94.6 percent while the national average is 94.5 percent, latest results of Labor Force Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.
Regional Director Johnson Cañete said as of Wednesday, Western Visayas is performing well although the national scale is measured based on different situations.
“One beautiful attribute of Western Visayas is being a tourism destination, which provides more job opportunities,” he added.
As of January this year, the employment rate was higher at 95.1 percent, but Cañete said the slight decrease by the end of April was due to the entry of new graduates to the region’s workforce.
Since not all of them can immediately land a job, they might be included already in the unemployed workers surveyed for the month of April, he added.
“It is not a significant decrease since we really expect to have an increase in the number of labor force,” Cañete said.
He added that the positive employment rate means the economy in Western Visayas remains robust, pointing out that business establishments continue to grow, resulting in hiring of more people.
There are new opportunities for growth and new investments are coming in, he said.
Cañete, however, acknowledged that the employment rate in Region 6 is expected to significantly decrease in the coming months, primarily because of the closure of Boracay Island in Aklan, the region’s top tourist spot.
The DOLE-Western Visayas has profiled about 18,000 Boracay workers.
Majority of them are expected not to apply for other jobs within the closure period so they can avail of government assistance, Cañete said.
Moreover, the survey also showed that Western Visayas’ labor force participation rate is pegged at 61.8 percent as of April 2018, also higher than the national rate of 60.9 percent.
The region’s unemployment rate is 5.4 percent while underemployment rate is 17.5 percent.
Underemployed are workers who are highly-skilled but working in low paying jobs, workers who are highly-skilled but working in low skill jobs, and part-time workers, who would have preferred to work full-time. (Erwin Nicavera/PNA)
