Define employment and unemployment

Employment means a verbal or written commitment with an entity, also known as

employer, with regards to payment, schedule and as such. It is different from work contract.

Although employees can negotiate certain items in an employment agreement, the terms and

conditions are primarily determined by the employer. Both parties may also terminate the

agreement. Employment may also mean the act of being hired or employed by a company or

employer to do a certain task with an exchange in monetary value.

Unemployment, in the other hand, is when people are available and are looking for work

but does not have the opportunity to have it. In our days, unemployed people include people who

are finding work for 4 weeks but still haven’t found one, some are waiting for their job to call

them back. Not all people who does not have a job means they are unemployed especially when

they are not looking for work.

Determine and critically analyze the causes of unemployment

There are 7 reasons why there are unemployment in a country, and these 7 reasons leads

to 3 main types of unemployment increase.

First type would be Frictional unemployment that includes 4 reason of unemployment.

First is that employees tend to leave their jobs especially when they saved enough money to quit

unfulfilling jobs. Second reason is when employees relocate. They quit their job and start to

settle in in the new town and find new jobs. Third reason is the addition of young bloods, who

tends to find jobs fitting to their skill. And lastly is when job seekers re-enter the workforce.
Second type of unemployment would be Structural unemployment. It occurs because of

the new technological advancement in a country causing them to let some of the employees go.

Old employees need more training before they can get back to their work again. And job

outsourcing, meaning that companies move their workplace in a different country which has a

lower labor costs than the former.

Cyclical unemployment is the last type of unemployment which has the most obvious

reason in a country. This tells us that there is a deficit in job opportunity that job-seekers are

finding.

What are possible measures to improve employment conditions in developing countries?

The most common thing that country leaders doing nowadays are opening up the country

to more foreign opportunity wherein they try to invite foreign investor to invest in the country,

thus giving more job opportunity to people decreasing unemployment in the process.

Another thing a country need is to support their own small business entrepreneurs for

them to grow giving more jobs to other people.

Exercise 1
Try to understand the different perspectives on variations on wages by undertaking a

simple survey among members of your family who are already working. You may use the

following guide questions to help you start with your research:

• How are their salaries / wages similar or different? You may look into the ranges of their

salaries

or wages, or salary grades (for government officials).

• What were the considerations for the salary or wage offers?

• What kind of jobs were given the aforementioned salaries or wages? How do these types of

jobs influence wage determination?

The salaries of the family differ in ranges especially between the blue-collar job and the

white-collar jobs. Blue-collar workers have a much smaller salary than the white-collar workers.

Some of them also differ in benefits especially with the public company employee or the

government employed and the private company employees. Sometimes they have benefits that

can come from private employees or sometimes the company itself. Blue collar jobs salary in our

family ranges from P15,000 – P25,000 per month while white collar worker’s salary ranges from

P30,000 to over P60,000 in a month.

The considerations included in the variation of salary and wages are skills required for

the job and decision-making skill which is nowadays are much appreciated. Inflation also affects

the salary of workers especially the workers in a manufacturing company which handles

different kind of raw materials. Salary differs also on the experience held by an employee

whether he has a bachelor’s degree, a doctorate or undergraduate. Some can be held up in a

contract, which we call contractual workers, who works in the production factory. Salary may be
increased due to a person’s productivity or maybe a big help in the company. This factor helps in

determining the salary that an employee can get from working in his profession.

Skill related jobs are given to the blue-collar workers which in our country has the lowest

labor cost, for example would be the garbage collector that are employed by the government,

they only earn the minimum salary in the Philippines while the garbage collector in other country

is much appreciated and given a much higher wage that the Philippines. In the Philippines,

white-collar jobs are the dream job to be in because even if you are a government employee or a

private company employee, there would not be a doubt in getting a high salary.

Exercise 2

Does the official employment and unemployment rates capture the real labor condition of a

country?

Discuss why or why not using the following statistics:

• Philippine labor statistics from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the Department of

Labor and Employment (DOLE). Determine how the Philippine government defines

employment and unemployment.

• Using these definitions, critically analyze how such standards for employment and

unemployment affects the way we measure labor force participation.

• Look at ILO statistics on employment and unemployment. Compare the status of our Southeast

Asian neighbors with the Philippines. How are we similar and different? Identify and critically

analyze the reasons why

and Employment, Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, unemployment rate in the Philippines

increased at a significant amount from 10.3% from 1998 to 17.7% in April 2020, which is the

highest unemployment rate recorded in the Philippines. It was all due to the effects of the Corona

Virus outbreak. He also quoted that “We also recognize the huge drop in the labor force

participation rate at 55.6%, the lowest in the history of the Philippine Labor Market. The

lockdown during the community quarantine from March to May, which is supposed to be the

period for job hunting of our fresh graduates, has put the labor force in a standstill as two-thirds

of the economy is shut down.” The Philippines Statistics Association also gathered the same info

from the Labor Force Survey.

We can say that they capture the current unemployment and employment participation in

the country especially in the outbreak of a pandemic. The information gathered by Dole and PSA

are collected through series of people that conduct surveys in a sampling area, which are then

calculated and interpreted before released to the public.

Due to the pandemic arising in our country, different factors are affecting our economy

leading to changes in the labor force participation. The labor force participation rate is a measure

of an economy’s active workforce. The formula for the number is the sum of all workers who are

employed or actively seeking employment divided by the total noninstitutionalized, civilian

working-age population. Citizens are not able to go outside a city thus decreasing their

opportunity to find a job, especially the newly graduates. This resulted to a decrease to 55.6% in

labor participation which also include the rapid growth of unemployment rate in our country.

The Philippines is seen booking the highest unemployment rate in Southeast Asia, with

about eight million Filipinos expected to lose their jobs as the coronavirus disease 2019 or
COVID-19 pandemic continues to overwhelm the economy. The Philippines’ unemployment

rate is expected to increase from 7.7% to 18.5% this year. This is higher than Thailand’s 15.9

percent, Malaysia’s 6.5 percent, Indonesia’s 5.9 percent, Singapore’s four percent, and

Vietnam’s 3.6 percent. Some officials mention that the easing of quarantine restrictions would

help to enabled the restoration of 7.5 million jobs and the return to productive work of 4.9

million workers.

Exercise 3

One of the reasons why Filipinos leave the country is because of our socio-economic conditions.

The government, in part, also crafted laws in favor of labor export. Find at least three (3) related

legislations and government policies on OFW welfare, labor export, and migrant protection

implemented in our country. Critically assess these public policies using the following questions

as guide:

• What are the salient provisions and major goals of the identified public policies?

• How are these salient provisions and major goals consistent with our Philippine Development

Plan and AmBisyon 2040, as articulated by our national government?

• Looking into recent studies and news articles on the plight of Filipino overseas workers, how

are

these policies responsive to identified OFW issues and challenges?

• Using you field of specialization, how would we best support OFWs and respond to challenges

that affect their welfare?

Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995

SEC. 4. Deployment of Migrant Workers - The State shall deploy overseas Filipino workers only

in countries where the rights of Filipino migrant workers are protected. The government

recognizes any of the following as guarantee on the part of the receiving country for the

protection and the rights of overseas Filipino workers:

(a) It has existing labor and social laws protecting the rights of migrant workers;

(b) It is a signatory to multilateral conventions, declaration or resolutions relating to the

protection of migrant workers;

(c) It has concluded a bilateral agreement or arrangement with the government protecting the

rights of overseas Filipino workers; and

(d) It is taking positive, concrete measures to protect the rights of migrant workers.

SEC. 5. TERMINATION OR BAN ON DEPLOYMENT - Notwithstanding the provisions of

Section 4 hereof, the government, in pursuit of the national interest or when public welfare so

requires, may, at any time, terminate or impose a ban on the deployment of migrant workers.

Sec. 6. DEFINITIONS. - For purposes of this Act, illegal recruitment shall mean any act of

canvassing, enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring, procuring workers and includes

referring, contact services, promising or advertising for employment abroad, whether for profit

or not, when undertaken by a non-license or non-holder of authority contemplated under Article

13(f) of Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended, otherwise known as the Labor Code of the

Philippines. Provided, that such non-license or non-holder, who, in any manner, offers or
promises for a fee employment abroad to two or more persons shall be deemed so engaged. It

shall likewise include the following acts, whether committed by any persons, whether a non-

licensee, non-holder, licensee or holder of authority.

The most salient provision and major goals of the given articles are the protection of

OFW or migrants from the country, and recognition of their work to the progress of our country.

It merely protects the well-being and having authority on the protection of our OFW.

The AmBisyon 2040 prioritize the welfare of the Filipino citizen which dictates that no

one should be poor, families live together and sources are secured in the far future. The OFW

welfare legislations are somehow related to this because this is attainable only if our Filipino

workers in other country is safe and can go home to their family without harm. This also states

that Filipino citizen would have enough resources to sustain themselves in their daily lives, thus

increasing productivity and decreasing migration to other countries.

Sources:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/development-economics.asp

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/urbanization/

https://aspe.hhs.gov/report/transition-events-dynamics-poverty/human-capital-theory#:~:text=Human%20capital

%20theory%20is%20a,the%20major%20determinants%20of%20poverty.&text=The%20human%20capital

%20theory%20states,forego%20earnings%20as%20they%20invest.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/participationrate.asp#:~:text=What%20Is%20the%20Labor%20Force,%2C

%20civilian%20working%2Dage%20population.

http://www.poea.gov.ph/laws&rules/files/Migrant%20Workers%20Act%20of%201995%20(RA%208042).html