NEDA Eastern Visayas regional office in Palo, Leyte. (PNA file photo)
TACLOBAN CITY – The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in Eastern Visayas region is upbeat about the higher employment rate this year with more jobs available driven by the improving regional economy.
NEDA Eastern Visayas regional director Meylene Rosales is optimistic that the labor market gains in 2022 will be sustained this year.
Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Rosales said the employment rate in January 2023 alone went up to 96.2 percent from 93 percent in the same period in 2022.
“Our robust economic growth also came with more jobs for Eastern Visayans. Our booming labor market brought down joblessness in the region by 1.5 points in 2022 from 6.6 percent in 2021,” Rosales said.
The official pointed out that while the employment rate was still short of the pre-pandemic figure of 95.6 percent in 2019, 121,700 more workers were employed in 2022 compared to 2019.
“Further, our underemployment rate, which measures the quality of jobs in the region, was 18.3 percent in 2022, a reduction of 2.1 points from 20.3 percent in 2019. Simply put, this means that more workers were able to find well-paying and stable jobs in private establishments during the year,” she added.
The better employment performance is largely driven by 6.8 percent economic growth in 2022.
The 2022 regional economic data is higher than the 6 percent growth of the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) recorded in 2021, -7.4 percent in 2020, and its pre-pandemic level of 5.3 percent in 2019.
Rosales said the regional labor market has been improving with increased labor force participation and accelerated job creation.
From 1.86 million people in the workforce in 2019 to 2.09 million in 2022, the annual labor force participation rate rose to 64.3 percent, the highest in the past four years.
Of the 2.09 million labor force in 2021, 2.02 million persons were employed.
The figure, according to Rosales shows that the region’s employment rate has been steadily improving from 92.0 percent in 2020, the peak of the strict mobility restrictions. (PNA)
