Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines needs to generate between three to four million new jobs yearly if it is to eradicate poverty by 2016, the country’s chief economic planner said. “That means new investments worth $3 billion a year,” Socioeconomic Planning  Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said in a briefing yesterday. He said the labor force is growing by one to 1.1 million a year, while roughly a million Filipinos enter the employment force every year, on top of is the existing 10 million unemployed and underemployed. “So the employment generating capacity must grow faster than the labor force,” Balisacan, who is also director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), said. Half of those joining the work force are aged 15 to 34 years, or equivalent to 46 percent of the employed population. To be able to generate the huge number of jobs, government must focus to the sectors with the inherent ability to create jobs. Among the favored sectors are tourism, agriculture, manufacturing outside of the electronics and semi-conductor industry, construction and infrastructure. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “We need to sharpen on our focus on sectors that generate jobs. We estimate that if we can get the sectors, mainly the private sector, to bring in $3 billion in new investments,” he said. The economic planning chief said that it is likewise a prerequisite to overcome certain constraints, especially the poor infrastructure situation, which includes power and connectivity, meaning roads, railways, air and Read More …