From the News! – Your Daily News

Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA Philippines—The Labor department will conduct surveys and meetings with companies in export zones next month to gain a full picture of how the global credit squeeze affects them and to craft a plan to help their workers.

This was disclosed recently by Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, who noted that the Labor department is closely monitoring the employment situation in the export zones.

“The export industry is definitely affected because it is dependent on credit,” Roque said.

“We are going to talk to locators and see who are vulnerable. We are concerned about the Taiwanese and Korean locators,” he added.

Both Taiwan and South Korea are export-oriented economies that were heavily battered by the global economic meltdown.

He noted that he had already ordered his regional directors to make arrangements with locators and draft initial reports.

Recently, Texas Instrument, the world’s leading chip manufacturer laid off 400 workers due to reduced orders from the overseas market. Roque said the company has promised them to take back the workers once orders pour in.

Labor groups also said export zones in Cavite and Cebu have started to cut down working hours and lay off hundreds of workers because of slow down in demand from United States and Europe, their traditional markets that were crippled by the financial crunch.

Many of the companies that have shed workers and production hours belong to the semiconductor and garment industries.

Asked on the total figure of the workers that have been laid off from the export zones, Roque said DOLE has no official number yet.

He said it will depend on the reports from the January meetings and surveys.

Roque said he is not alarmed by the reports of mass retrenchment, although he admitted that there would be more job losses as the worldwide recession deepens.

But Roque said a significant rise in unemployment would be unlikely as it would mean that the pump priming initiatives in major economies have failed.

“There will be job losses. I would be lying if I say there won’t be any. But it is not massive,” Roque said.

Roque also noted that non-export oriented and local industries will not be severely affected by the recession.

“The local industries catering to local market won’t have any problems because it is cash-based,” the Labor chief explained.

Although employment in the construction sector slowed down, Roque said new jobs were created in the retailing sector.

Cielito Habito
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines – Ever notice how our economy has been behaving strangely lately? The latest strange (but welcome) behavior is how job generation based on the last two quarterly Labor Force Surveys (July and October 2008) appeared healthy even in the face of the world economic slowdown that has taken a definite toll on our economy.

In July, it was reported that about 1.3 million new jobs were created in our economy within the preceding 12 months. That was very good, given our need to create at least a million new jobs a year to keep pace with growth in the working age population.

In stark contrast, the same figure a year ago was only 392,000 jobs, and yet this was the period that our economy was recorded to have grown at a 30-year high of 7.2 percent. The latest October jobs figure, while a bit lower at 861,000 new jobs year-on-year, was nonetheless again better than the previous year’s job generation (786,000).

And yet, economic growth had already slowed down significantly to the 4 percent level this year. We had, in short, less job creation last year when we had much faster (even record) production growth, and strangely enough, more job creation this year when economic growth has been much slower.

More puzzles
You’d think looking more closely at the data would help explain the puzzle. But the puzzle deepens even more when you check the breakdown of output growth and job generation across major sectors of the economy.

The services sector has significantly slowed down from its brisk growth in past years, with last year’s growth rate (7.2 percent) cut down to just about half this year (3.7 percent). And yet, services provided 44 percent more jobs this year (699,000) compared to last year (485,000).

The industry sector posted a healthy 7.1 percent growth in the third quarter, surpassing last year’s performance (6.6 percent). And yet it had created only a thousand new jobs in the 12 months preceding last October; the same figure last year was 182,000.

Agriculture is no less a puzzle. Last year, it posted an impressive growth of 5.6 percent in the third quarter, but lost 11,000 jobs. This year its growth has slowed down to less than half of last year’s pace (2.5 percent)–and yet generated 161,000 new jobs.

Job-killing growth?
These seeming contradictions puzzle me even more in light of the general impression one gets from experience–not only in the Philippines but elsewhere as well–that the “growth-employment elasticity” is usually lopsided downwards.

In plain English, a 1-percent fall in output (or slowdown in its growth) usually results in much more job losses than the jobs that are gained when the economy grows by 1 percent.

It was in this context that the term “jobless growth” came about. Economists had begun to notice that much of the economic growth in the world’s economies in at least the past decade has not been accompanied by a commensurate growth in jobs.

In many cases in fact, there were hardly any job increases at all even as economies continued growing–hence the term. Worse, there have been episodes when growth actually speeded up, and yet jobs actually fell, as in last year’s experience with our agricultural sector. This is not just jobless growth; it is better described as “job-killing growth!”

But what we’re seeing right now is the exact opposite. As growth slows down, we seem to see more jobs coming about than when the economy grew much faster. This is all welcome of course, but how do we explain such perverse trends?

Job profile
I am not about to question the statistics, even though many would immediately point to that as the possible answer. There are actually answers to be found in the further details of the job numbers. Where have the latest jobs been coming from?

I examined the available tables from the National Statistics Office (NSO) website, made some calculations, and found the following: Of the surprising 699,000 new services sector jobs mentioned above, more than half were in trade. And since I am not seeing an unusual proliferation of retail stores and shopping malls in the past 12 months, I surmise that what this means is that large numbers of Filipinos have taken to the usual informal sector selling/vending activities–”nangangalakal,” as squatters near our neighborhood describe the common occupation in their area.

And this includes selling items scavenged from the neighborhood garbage piles, which they systematically pore over and collect usable items from before the municipal garbage collection trucks come to collect them.

It would seem, then, that much of the puzzles I’ve been describing simply reflect the resilience of the average Filipino. When our poor compatriots find themselves against the wall, they will find a way. Clearly, the kind of growth we have been experiencing gives us little to be happy with or gloat about even if the posted GDP growth rate is faster than that of our neighbors. What continues to elude us is quality growth, one whose benefits permeate throughout the economy such that as the saying goes, “the rising tide lifts all boats.”

The best of the holiday season to all–and here’s wishing us all a joyous new year (“prosperous” may not be quite realistic)!

Comments are welcome at chabito@ateneo.edu

Bernadette Parco
Cebu Daily News

EVEN with mitigating measures in place, the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas (DOLEe-7) said business establishments need to set up more safety nets to cushion the impact of a global recession.

Elias Cayanong, DOLE-7 director, cited a report from the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) which said that the country was doing well as of last month.

“We are not feeling (the financial crisis) yet. That’s why some companies have to prepare now,” he said.

He said some of these measures adopted by companies include compressed work week and livelihood training for displaced workers.

“(Through the) the compressed work week, they are improving their productivity. (And through) training, they want to enhance the people to be more productive and become more competitive,” he added.

Cayanong said some companies have adjusted by providing livelihood to retrenched workers.

“One thing is that they are reducing expenses by reducing the working days. Some benefits are curtailed while some are expanding their marketing arm,” he told .

He said other companies looked at Europe and Russia as new markets, reducing their exports to the United States.

Because of the recession and our expansion to other countries, exports to US dropped from 60 percent to over 10 percent.

While receiving reports about retrenchment and unemployment figures, Cayanong said the number was erratic.

“On our part, we have already 59 livelihood projects for the informal sector. These are people who are self-employed. We provide them with training. We provide them with finances,” he said.

Cayanong said DOLE-7 infused almost P9 million for the informal sector as part of the government’s Poverty Alleviation Program.

Livelihood projects for the formal sector or rank and file include grocery stores, canteens and native chicken production.

Cayanong said the manufacturing sector, specifically the furniture-making business, is the hardest hit in the crisis.

“The first problem at the time was the depreciation of the dollar. The exports now are becoming more expensive. The dollar recovered now, which ranges from P48.50 to P49 to the dollar, probably this development helped sustain also our market abroad, especially the US,” he said.

He also said the unemployment rate in Central Visayas is still better than other regions due to the tourism and business process outsourcing and heavy industries.

The Mactan Export Processing Zone is still the major employment generator in Cebu province, said Cayanong, who added that there is an average of 80,000 to 120,000 employees in the area.

Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) assured jobs will be forthcoming for nearly 900 ex-workers of call center firm Advanced Contact Solutions (ACS).

In an earlier statement, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) chief Ernesto Herrera urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to address these displaced workers who were reportedly retrenched after its client PRC, a teleservices firm, declared bankruptcy.

CICT commissioner Monchito Ibrahim, however, clarified that not all of these workers were laid off.

“I’ve talked to the president of ACS myself and he indicated that this falls within the normal 20 percent attrition rate call centers experience every year,” Ibrahim told INQUIRER.net.

The company employs around 4,000 workers spread throughout six facilities, including those located in Laguna and Batangas.

According to the TUCP, employees who lost their jobs represent one-fifth of ACS’ workforce.

But Ibrahim said some of these workers have resigned voluntarily as part of the normal attrition routine in call centers.

“Our message to these people is that they should not worry because the industry still needs thousands of workers. They should be absorbed by other companies so long as they are competent,” Ibrahim said.

Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) chief Oscar Sañez, meanwhile, said such “changes in our client line up” is expected because of the current global economic crisis.

“Some US companies are being acquired by other companies, some are absorbing other companies and some are undergoing major restructuring or closing,” he said in an e-mail response to INQUIRER.net.

“This means some of our clients will expand rapidly as they acquire more companies, outsource more and some clients are also downsizing or even closing. The client mix will change and we are anticipating that,” he said.

But companies abroad will become more pressured to outsource to cut costs and improve efficiency during the crisis, the industry executive said.

“This is a good opportunity for the Philippine government to organize a more aggressive marketing campaign and more trade missions abroad,” he said.

Manila Times

Bacolod City: Convergys Corporation, a global leader in relationship management, said it plans to employ up to 1,000 workers in its integrated contact center here by year-end. The new facility was launched on Wednesday with President Gloria Arroyo as the guest of honor.

Located in One San-parq, San Antonio Square along Lacson Street, the new contact center currently employs 700 local residents. With this new site, Convergys now has nine of the largest, multi-client, US-company-owned contact centers in the Philippines. The company has two centers located in Cebu and six in Metro Manila. As one of the largest and most recognized employers in the country today, Convergys maintains a workforce of over 14,000 Filipino professionals.

“They are our greatest asset and we are so proud of all of our employees and their accomplishments,” said Andrea Ayers, Convergys president of customer management.

“We have an employee base comprised of the best minds and talents and have created a competitive advantage by harnessing the individual strengths of peoples and cultures around the world. With our new facility here in Bacolod City, we continue to tap the tremendous pool of people resources available in the Philippines,” said Marife Zamora, Convergys vice president and country manager, Philippines.

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority has recognized Con-vergys as Outstanding Employer of the Year twice and Outstanding Exporter. In 2006, the company was honored with the title Employer of the Year at the International ICT Awards. Convergys has also won the Philippine Quill Award in the Employee Communication category.

Jess Diaz
Philippine Star

President Arroyo isn’t the only one in government who is overworked and underpaid.

Congressmen learned yesterday that critical personnel of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) do not receive night differential pay.

Science and Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro, whose department includes the two agencies, told the House appropriations committee that their personnel work almost around the clock seven days a week monitoring the weather and volcanoes that are acting up and should be getting night differentials.

She said they have been proposing that a small amount be added to their annual budget for the additional pay of Pagasa and Phivolcs personnel doing night duty, but the Department of Budget and Management and Congress have always rejected their proposal.

“We are told that we should just source the needed amount from our savings, but there are hardly any savings,” she added.

Dr. Prisco Nilo, Pagasa director, told reporters later that what his night personnel receive is overtime pay.

He said the night differential is about 20 percent of the basic hourly pay.

He added that his agency needs only P6 million a year for such differential.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., who heads an appropriations subcommittee handling the budget of the Department of Science and Technology, said he would look into the problem of Pagasa and Phivolcs.

During the hearing, opposition Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City and other members of the appropriations committee demanded equitable allocation of science scholars among congressional districts.

Under the law, Rodriguez said the DOST has to enlist at least two scholars from each town throughout the country.

However, he said many of the current science scholars come from Metro Manila and from rich families, prejudicing poor but deserving students in the provinces.

After Abante promised to look into the concerns of Rodriguez and other congressmen, the Cagayan de Oro lawmaker proposed that the appropriations committee increase the DOST budget.

“While the national budget would go up by P188 billion next year and state agencies will receive additional funds, the DOST would perhaps be the only agency that would suffer a decrease in budget,” Rodriguez said.

He said the one-percent reduction in the DOST budget, from P5.494 billion in 2008 to P5.441 billion in 2009, does not speak well of the kind of support Congress and the Arroyo administration give to science and technology.

Philippine Star

Freshman students entering the University of the Philippines’ College of Medicine next year will be required to serve as doctors in the Philippines for three years, with violators to be fined more than P1 million.

Dr. Alberto Roxas, UP College of Medicine dean, said 2005 figures estimated the fine at P1.8 million, but the amount could increase by 2014 when the freshmen in 2009 would be graduating.

“Their tuition is only about 17 percent of the total cost of medical education,” he said. “The government subsidizes the remaining 83 percent.
If you are subsidized by the government, you really have to serve.”

Roxas said the 2014 UP medical graduates will be required to do a three-year return service in public health (clinic, management of programs, policy); academe, research or private clinical practice.

“For as long as these are done in his/her capacity as a physician and in any part of the Philippines,” he said.

Roxas said the return service must be completed within five years after graduation from the UP College of Medicine.
“I’m not saying ‘Don’t go abroad,’” he said.

“If you’re good, go abroad. If you think that’s what’s best for you, go. But if you go to UP, you have to serve your country first… What’s good if you are the best mind if you don’t serve your country?”

Roxas estimates that starting 2014 and up to 2017, 480 medical doctors from UP would be available in the country at any given time.

“This is because some120 students will serve under the mandatory return service agreement every school year,” he said.

Roxas said it would not be easy for the 2014 graduates to breach the return service agreement.

“When they go abroad, their medical education credentials have to be authenticated by the dean of the College of Medicine,” he said.

“If they have not complied, I will not give them authentication.”

— Sheila Crisostomo

Nora O. Gamolo
OFW Times

A few hours before President Gloria Arroyo delivers her state of the Nation address (SONA) in Congress on Monday, nurses will be converging along Commonwealth Avenue, near the Batasang Pambansa complex, to hear their own SONA.

Theirs will be their own State of the Nurses Address, and they are demanding the Arroyo government implement the long-overdue increase in their salaries to P16,093, equivalent to Salary Grade 15 in the government service.

“If employers are giving, at the very least, [P16,093], our nurses will not even leave the country,” said Dr. Leah Samaco Paquiz, president of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), the biggest nurses’ organization in the country.

“This amount is not given, even to nurses in the government service. We can’t believe [government doesn’t] have the money,” said Paquiz.

Some nurses in private hospitals are complaining that they get lower than the mandated minimum basic pay, currently pegged at P362 a day for non-agricultural workers in the National Capital Region, and even lower in the regions. The minimum wage is set by tripartite regional wage boards.

This amount, recommended as the minimum salary for government nurses, is a key provision of Republic Act (R. A.) 9173, the Nursing Act of 2002, but has never been implemented since its promulgation.

“It is clear in the law’s Sec. 32 that in order to enhance the general welfare, commitment to service and professionalism of nurses, the minimum base pay of nurses working in public health institutions should not be lower than salary grade 15,” stressed Paquiz.

“How do we expect nurses to remain in government service with this [low] salary?” asked Paquiz, explaining that while salary alone is not the nurses’ reason for service, they could not provide for their families solely from their income. Hence, foreign employment becomes more attractive to nurses.

She asserted that nurses, a necessary member of any public health team, would have loved to serve their own people, but are discouraged by the very low salary they are getting from the workload normally assigned to them.

A nurse attends to as many as 50 patients to a single nurse in many hospitals, even if the ideal ratio is one nurse to 10 non-emergency or non-critical care patients.

In many hospitals, too, fresh nursing graduates who have just passed the board examination work with the regular nursing team as “volunteers” just to secure the minimum two- or three-year service required for them to be employed abroad.

“We need to entice these nurses to work in public health and in government service by this simple request to provide them with what is just and legal,” emphasized Paquiz, stressing that the general public stands to benefit from giving nurses better pay.

The Department of Labor and Employment has lately announced that the global demand for locally trained Pinoy nurses still remains high especially in Western countries with an aging population.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said demand for Filipino nurses is not dwindling, but many nurses have no adequate experience, preventing them from finding overseas employment.

He said the US is putting a cap on the entry of Filipino nurses, but there are other markets abroad for capable nurses, saying that the Saudi Arabian government is in need of 10,000 nurses for its public hospitals and want Filipino nurses to fill in these vacancies. There is also a growing demand for Filipino nurses in Canada as well as Australia.

PNA’s Paquiz was once quoted as saying that the demand for Filipino nurses had “plateaued” in the US since 2006 because of the “visa retrogression” there. The United Kingdom, meanwhile, has made its policies on immigrants stricter.

“In the US, the quota for visas has been filled up, resulting in delayed processing of visas with current efforts focused on 2006 accepted applicants,” Paquiz reportedly said.

She added that “many licensed nurses are now underemployed or unemployed as a result of changes of policy in destination countries, the current situation of oversupply and quality problems, among others.”

In 2007, over 21,000 new Filipino nurses sought jobs in the United States, according to the country’s biggest labor federation, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

TUCP spokesperson Alex Aguilar said a total of 21,499 Filipinos took the US National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) for nurses for the first time (that is, excluding repeaters) from January to December 2007.

This represents an increase of 6,328 or 42 percent compared to the 15,171 Filipinos that took the NCLEX for the first time in the whole of 2006.

Aguilar said the 2007 NCLEX statistics, released January 24 by the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing, “solidified” the Philippines’ position as America’s top provider of foreign nurses.

The Philippines readily topped the five countries with the most number of nationals taking the NCLEX for the first time in 2007. India came second, with 5,370 examinees; followed by South Korea, 1,906; Canada, 888; and Cuba, 673.

Meanwhile, the country has 27,765 new nurses who passed the June board examination.

TUCP looks at the big population of nursing graduates differently. “We are now producing nurses at a rate of 100,000 to 150,000 every year, and less than five percent of them are getting employed locally, either by the government or the private sector. So we definitely have a large surplus of nurses,” Aguilar said.

Anthony Vargas, Reporter
Manila Times

Most recruitment is for replacing separated workers but there are indications of fresh hirings

THE Department of Labor and Employment on Wednesday reported an uptrend in the hiring of workers that somehow indicates positive employment growth among Metro Manila’s top 500 enterprises.

The Bureau of Labor Employment and Statistics, in a report to Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, said the uptrend in worker hiring is reflected in a recently concluded Labor Turnover Survey.

The bureau, an agency that is directly under the Labor department, conducted the labor survey in Metro Manila during the past five years from January 2003 up to the end of December 2007.

As shown in the survey, employment in top enterprises in the metropolis has grown generally over the long term from 2003 to 2007, as compared to earlier years which showed stagnant jobs activity.

The bureau initially noted a sluggish employment growth in Metro Manila from 2003 to 2005 but its pace has substantially improved with the accession rates in the succeeding years.

In 2006 the accession or new hires was at 9.23 percent and increased to 10.47 percent in the following year, outpaced with a “respectable margin” in their separation rates at 7.7 percent and 7.64 percent, respectively.

New workers are being hired

In 2007 alone, the statistics imply a net addition of 28 workers per 1,000 employed or a total of 105 workers being hired, offsetting 76 workers separated because of resignation or termination.

The bureau said this makes for a substantially improved labor turnover rate of 2.83 percent, denoting the difference between the accession and separation rates during the year.

It also the positive labor turnover rate of employment in Metro Manila’s top 500 firms only means the latter have begun “to boost their workforces” in the process, creating more jobs as compared to number of workers laid off.

The bureau added that from 2003 to 2007, accession or new hires among the top firms have been driven mainly by replacement of separated workers, from 4.59 percent in 2003 to 8.53 percent in 2007.

Business expansion accounted for lesser fraction, or 1.94 percent to 2.94 percent.

The bureau said the accession refers to new hires who are either permanent or temporary additions to an enterprise.

Manila Standard

EMPLOYMENT in tourism rose 6.44 percent in the year to April 2008, easing the drop in work opportunities in the other industries, the government said yesterday.

Employment in real estate also went up, and by 5.1 percent, in the same period, the National Statistics Office said.

The National Economic and Development Authority said the expansion in these two sectors and in business process outsourcing, mining and construction would result in more jobs this year, and they needed support to create more employment.

“More aggressive employment programs and timely implementation of programmed infrastructure projects for 2008 are crucial to generate jobs,” Neda deputy director general Margarito Songco said in a report to President Arroyo.

Employment losses must be minimized through employment protection programs, she said.

Earlier, the statistics office said the employment rate went down slightly in April, to 92.0 percent from 92.6 percent in the same month a year ago.

Most of the sectors that suffered employment losses registered a slowdown in output in the first quarter this year, Songco said.

Rising inflation and the global economic slowdown resulted in a 4.6-percent drop in employment in the industry sector, she said.

Employment in the mining and quarrying, utilities and construction sub-sectors fell by 15.8 percent, 8.2 percent and by 1.2 percent, respectively.

Manufacturing, which employed the most number of people in the industry sector, nevertheless recorded a fall in employment of about 183,000 workers, or a contraction of 6.0 percent.

Employment in agriculture expanded by 0.4 percent, but that was a sharp drop from 5.1 percent in the same period last year.

Employment in the services sector inched up by 0.2 percent despite the fall in the wholesale and retail trade and the repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods.

Unemployment rose to 8.0 percent from 7.4 percent a year ago as the number of jobless people increased to 2,914,000 from 2,692,000.

The underemployment rate, or the proportion of those working but wanted more work, increased to 19.8 percent from 18.9 percent. Roderick T. dela Cruz