The unemployment rate in the country increased to 7.5% in the first quarter of 2013 from 7.1% in the fourth quarter of 2012, based on data from the National Statistics Office. The Philippines uses the International Labour Organization (ILO) definition of unemployed as ''those who are currently not working but are willing and able to work for pay, currently available to work and have actively searched for work.'' So if you are out of work but have given up looking for work, you are not part of these statistics.
Looking at the statistics, we can see that the drop came from the agriculture sector where 624,000 workers lost their jobs while both the industry and services sectors grew by 3.8% and 1.9% respectively. This needs to be studied further, given that in the 7.8% GDP growth, all the sectors, including agriculture, registered increases with 3% for that sector. Is it possible that an increase in mechanization accounted for the increased GDP contribution of agriculture? If this is true then it would seem that an answer, would be to expand investments in agriculture so that more workers are employed. This is the challenge for the top business conglomerates in the country which seem to be putting their funds into infrastructure, services, and housing but not into the foundation of the Philippine economy - agriculture. Instead of hiring sales clerks in the malls, harnessing the countryside labor in farms would redound to more solid progress.
What I found disturbing is that 48.2% of the total unemployed come from the youth - age group of 15-24. This is a group with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Without jobs, they could be led astray into non-productive activities affecting negatively community life. They also will add significantly to the burden of other members of the family.
While there is a worldwide increase of unemployed youth, with the ILO reporting that 75 million young people are looking for jobs globally, the OECD pegging it at 26 million of 15-24 year-olds in developed countries that are not employed or in education or training and the World Bank surveys indicating that 262 million young people in emerging markets are economically inactive, still we should not just accept these figures for the Philippines and leave it at that.
The government and the private sector should jointly undertake programs and projects to absorb the youth into the labor market. Incentives for business and industry to venture into agriculture as well as manufacturing and tourism should be provided. But for transparency and accountability, the incentive-giving agencies should submit their budgeted incentives to the legislature so that the country will know how much of foregone government revenues are going to translate into investments and jobs. Closer partnerships between business and the education sector will result in better employability of the graduates. In fact, the on-the-job training now required of students should adjust to the schedule of business and industry and not of the schools. Otherwise the students will not get the full benefit of the training.
Instead of funding the state colleges and universities, the government should guarantee the loans of the financial institutions to students who can then chose to take up vocational courses or get professional degrees. The state colleges and universities should charge their full costs so that they are financially sustainable. With students deciding where to go and having to pay for the loans through future employment, they will flock to the better schools in both the public and private educational sector which hopefully will lead to the demise of the diploma mills.
These reforms may seem revolutionary but it is better to have employed youth than disillusioned youth who could lead a revolution.
Business Bits. State universities and colleges should stop depending on the people's money leading to complacency and mediocrity in education. Given the global challenges, they should compete like the private schools and prove they are the best by subjecting their institutions to an accreditation process.

Source: Manila Bulletin - July 1, 2013