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Teresa Cerojano
Manila Times

FILIPINO workers posted the lowest productivity in the past 10 years in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, a region where labor productivity has been “stagnant,” a UN agency report says.

Workers in Southeast Asia have only been producing a seventh of the wealth compared with their counterparts in the developed world, says the International Labor Organization in its report, “Key Indicators of the Labor Market, Fifth Edition,” that it released Monday.

Productivity in Southeast Asia and the Pacific rose at an annual average of only 1.6 percent between 1996 and 2006, compared with East Asia, where workers now produce twice as much as they did 10 years ago—the fastest rise anywhere in the world, the report says.

Each worker in the region produced $9,419 in 2006, or 3.5 percent more than in 2005, but just slightly higher than the $8,068 he or she produced 10 years ago, it says.

Unemployment is higher than before the Asian economic crisis of 1997, the ILO says, stressing the importance to find the right balance between productivity and employment rise.

In East Asia, each worker produced $12,591 in 2006, up from $6,347 in 1996.

“Development in Southeast Asia and the Pacific has been less impressive than in East Asia,” the report said. “Nevertheless, the region has profited from the economic boom in China and India and the good economic performance of most developed economies in recent years.”

In South Asia, productivity was eight times less than in rich countries, according to the report. The good news is that there are less poor Asian workers.

“The Asian regions saw a substantial reduction in the number of working women and men living on less than $1 a day,” the report said, adding the number of working poor decreased by as many as 148 million between 1996 and 2006, representing a drop of nearly 50 percent.

By contrast, sub-Saharan Africa’s weak economic performance resulted in an increase of 24 million in the number of working poor.

The productivity figure is found by dividing the country’s gross domestic product by the number of people employed. The UN report is based on 2006 figures for many countries, or the most recent available.

The study included eight of 11 Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

East Asia includes China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. South Asia encompasses Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

AP

Darwin G. Amojelar
Manila Times

LABOR productivity in the Philippines stands at the low end of Southeast Asian countries, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) said.

In a report titled, “Key Indicators of the Labor Market,” the ILO said labor productivity in the country stands at $7,271 per person employed, lower than neighboring market economies such as Singapore, $47,975; Malaysia, $22,112; Thailand, $13,915 and Indonesia, $9,022.

The country’s labor productivity is higher than state-led economies, such as Vietnam, $4,809; Myanmar, $4,541 and Cambodia, $2,853.

The United States still leads the world by far in labor productivity.

The ILO said it found that productivity—measured as output per person employed—in Southeast Asia and the Pacific “was stagnant and much slower than other regions” with an average annual increase of only 1.6 percent between 1996 and 2006.

“Workers in the region produced only a seventh of their developed economy counterparts,” the ILO said.

By comparison East Asia’s workers now produce twice as much as they did 10 years ago, the most considerable productivity increases in the world. But this is still only one fifth of what a worker in the developed economies produces.

In South Asia, productivity rose by around 50 percent. Despite this, South Asia’s workers only produces one eighth of what a developed economy worker does.

The ILO noted that the increases in productivity is mainly the result of companies combining capital, labor and technology better. “A lack of investment in people [training and skills], equipment and technology can lead to an underutilization of the productive potential of labor and so perpetuate poverty,” it said.

According to the report, some 1.5 billion people in the world—or one-third of the working-age population—are “potentially underutilized.” This new estimate of labor underutilization is composed of the 195.7 million unemployed people in the world and nearly 1.3 billion working poor who live with their families on less than $2 per day per person.

“Development in Southeast Asia and the Pacific has been less impressive than in East Asia. Nevertheless, the region has profited from the economic boom in China and India and the good economic performance of most developed economies in recent years. However unemployment remains higher than before the Asian economic crisis,” the ILO said.

“In order not to fall behind other regions in terms of productivity, but at the same time, use the potential of all those who, after the Asian crisis, have not participated in labor markets again, it is important to find the right balance between productivity and employment increases in years to come,” it added.

The report said agriculture continues to be an important source of livelihood, and around half the workers in both South East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia still work in that sector.

“Hundreds of millions of women and men are working hard and long but without the conditions they need to lift themselves and their families out of poverty; they risk falling deeper into poverty. Releasing their underutilized capacities by raising their productive potential must be at the top of the international development agenda,” Juan Somavia, ILO director general said.

Somavia said that the huge gap in productivity and wealth is cause “for great concern,” adding that raising the productivity levels of workers on the lowest incomes in the poorest countries is the key to reducing the enormous decent work deficits in the world.

Inquirer

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Inquirer

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