TO EXCHANGE INFORMATION on, and gather insights from, other countries’ experiences in population policymaking and labor and employment planning, the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investments (MPI), with the help of the Philippines’ Commission on Population (POPCOM), visited the Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) last June 23, 2014 and sought out the technical assistance and expertise of its research staff.

 

Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Acting Assistant Secretary Cristina Quismondo and ILS Deputy Executive Director Mary Grace L. Riguer warmly received the delegation of the Vietnam MPI officials and staff led by Mr. Nguyen Quan Thang, Director of the Department of Labor, Cultural and Social Affairs of Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investments, and Ms. Le Thi Puong Mai, population and development specialist at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Vietnam.

 

DOLE information-sharing on employment planning

In her opening remarks, OIC-Assistant Secretary Cristina Quismondo welcomed the delegates, expressing delight at the privilege and honor of having visited by fellow ASEAN officials. She told them that the Department under the administration of Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz will share with them its experiences in employment planning and policymaking, particularly in the drafting of the Philippine Labor and Employment Plan (LEP) 2011-2016.

To provide a context of the Philippine labor market, Mr. Manuel Laopao of the former Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) now under the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) presented two lectures on the concept and methodology of the Philippine Labor Force Survey (LFS) and the current employment situation of the Philippines.

 

LFS as demographic variables to employment planning

In his presentation, Mr. Laopao said that the LFS is a comprehensive national survey, which measures, among others, key labor market performance indicators such as employment growth, labor productivity, unemployment and underemployment.

He added that the LFS results are disaggregated by sex, age group, vulnerability, class of workers and occupation groups. These results, according to Mr. Laopao, are constantly used to guide DOLE in policymaking and in formulating or enhancing program interventions that seek to address demographic sectoral problems such as youth unemployment and low labor force participation of women.

 

Mixed performance of Philippine labor market in 2013: Gains and losses

Turning to the employment situation of the Philippines, Mr. Laopao said that the year 2013 showed mixed LFS results. He said that in 2013, while there have been employment gains in the industry and services sectors, these were negated by a severe decline in the agricultural sector; as a result, unemployment increased to 7.1 percent. Mr. Laopao, however, noted that from a high of 8 percent in 2006, the unemployment rate has stabilized to around 7.0 to 7.1 percent from 2007 to the present.

 

Turning around the labor market: Prospects for 2014

As regards challenges and prospects, Mr. Laopao said that the problems of the Philippine labor market are largely structural. On the macroeconomy, he noted that the flow of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the country has been slow compared to its neighbors in Southeast Asia. As to the labor market, he noted that full-time and wage and salary employment increased in 2013 indicating a trend toward the creation of quality employment. Mr. Laopao also cited the impending implementation of public infrastructure projects, the boom in the real estate sector, the expansion of the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, the growth in tourism and the sustained high confidence of the public and the business community in the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III as factors that could improve the Philippines’ employment prospects this year.

 

Employment planning in the Philippines: The LEP story

ILS Deputy Executive Director Mary Grace Riguer explained to the Vietnamese delegation how the population variables captured in the LFS statistics and surveys are integrated to employment policymaking in the Philippines. In particular, she discussed the formulation process of the LEP, which was unveiled to the public and endorsed to the Office of the President of the Philippines through the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in 2011.

Deputy Executive Director Riguer said that the LEP was the DOLE’s response to the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016, of which the formulation was spearheaded by NEDA in coordination with all government agencies in the country. Given the PDP goal of achieving inclusive growth, the DOLE then decided to anchor the direction of the LEP towards the promotion of inclusive growth through decent and productive employment.

Deputy Executive Director Riguer highlighted the importance of taking into consideration the demographic dimension of employment planning given that jobs and poverty reduction had become the central pillars of the PDP. She added that social indicators, which cover labor and employment, have to be linked to demographics and economic indicators in measuring development progress.

 

LEP and decent work: Monitoring the progress

Deputy Executive Director Riguer emphasized that there should be a translation of strategic priorities into an action plan specific for labor and employment areas. As such, to achieve targets under the PDP, the DOLE derived and crafted the LEP through consultations with workers, employers, and government agencies across the country. She further stated that the LEP contains the collective aspirations for improving work conditions in the country based on the decent work framework.

 

ILS DED: Social dialogue core trait of LEP

 During the open forum, Deputy Executive Director Riguer explained the connection between the PDP and the LEP by comparing it to a mother-daughter relationship. She said that while the employment goals of the PDP are general in scope, the LEP breaks them down into specifics, especially in the form of strategic responses to the sectoral concerns of the Philippine labor market, such as youth unemployment, low female labor force participation, jobless males, wages, security of tenure, child labor and skills-jobs mismatch.

Guiding these strategic responses, according to her, are the decent work indicators being monitored by the DOLE to periodically measure progress in the achievement of identified outcomes. She described this system as results-based, using a deliberate method of linking decent work indicators to the program interventions and services of all DOLE bureaus, offices and agencies. Further she said that through the strategies embodied in the LEP, progress in decent work can be sustained and employment deficits narrowed.

Asked by the Vietnamese planning officials and delegates how the LEP is implemented, Deputy Executive Director Riguer replied that DOLE carries out more than 200 commitments, strategies and targets under the Plan in partnership with the private sector, workers’ organizations and civil society groups. She also said that just as the formulation of LEP was done through consultations and dialogues, so is its implementation of the LEP. In closing, she emphasized that more than a ‘government plan’, the LEP is more of a ‘sectoral plan’ for which all sectors – government, private sector, civil society, labor groups and individual workers – have the responsibility to implement.

 Mr. Nguyen Quang Thang of the MPI expressed his gratitude and appreciation to DOLE and ILS for giving them informative and comprehensive presentations about integrating population and demographic variables into employment planning and policymaking. He noted that both Vietnam and the Philippines share similar demographic and employment problems such as a hugely young labor force, high unemployment rate and poverty incidence. He then extended an invitation to DOLE staff and officials to also visit their ministry to further exchange knowledge and information on employment concerns, issues, goals and policies common to Vietnam and the Philippines.

 

(For more information and queries about this press release, please contact Mr. Bryan M. Balco of the Advocacy and Publications Division of the Institute for Labor Studies at 527-3490/527-3447).