Corruption scandal dents construction jobs

Manila, Philippines – Investor aversion in wake of a probe into the way taxpayers’ money is spent for public works could have likely spilled into the labor market, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.

The underemployment rate - a metric on the health of the jobs market - worsened to 11.1 percent in September from 10.7 percent in August.

Belonging to this pool are those who wanted longer work hours, and in September – the month when the corruption scandal first erupted – their population rose by 142,000, PSA data showed.

“Ang increase sa underemployment month-on-month ay nasa construction,” National Statistician Dennis Mapa said.

[TRANSLATION: Construction contributed to the underemployment.]

“Possible na yung construction in the government sector, in particular, siyempre marami tayong workers diyan. May investigation tayo, it’s possible that this is partly the impact,” Mapa said.

[TRANSLATION: We have several workers in the construction in the government sector. We have an investigation – it’s possible that this is partly the impact.]

But overall, joblessness has eased somewhat in September month-on-month owing to more farm jobs, while mines and schools filled vacancies, the monthly labor force survey showed.

The unemployment rate – measured as a ratio of those without work to the labor force aged 15 and up – was 3.8 percent in September, slightly better than August’s 3.9 percent.

The jobless population shrank to 1.96 million that month from 2.03 million in August, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

But the labor force also trimmed over half a million workers at 51.56 million in September from 52.13 million the month before.

The job gains coincided with the wet season cropping for rice, with farms adding 129,000 workers, the monthly data showed.

The education sector hired 223,000 more workers month-on-month, while mines added 113,000 jobs.