April 11th, 2024
The February 2024 jobs report shows encouraging signs of a consolidating jobs market.
The tops jobs growing sectors are more durable sectors, such as craft and related trades workers (511,000 more jobs), plant and machine operators (481,000 more jobs), while declines were recorded among less durable sectors like skilled agricultural workers (378,000 less jobs) and elementary occupations (782,000 less jobs).
This also aligns with last year’s Business Outlook Index which showed generally high business confidence in the mining, construction, and energy sectors, compared with agriculture and retail trade.
This job consolidation owes much to improved business sentiment under the Marcos administration.
Growth in manufacturing jobs is especially a good sign for the Philippines amid global headwinds – the slowdown of Chinese growth, sustained high interest rates by the US Fed, high food costs, and a volatile global supply chain affected by regional conflicts.
With job quality improving, the key priority remains to be wage quality – how far current wages can go. That will be primarily driven by the price of rice.
Rice accounts for as much as 20.4 percent of the expenses of low-income workers; it also drove 57 percent of price increases in March 2024. Without the global rice price shock, Filipino workers would be enjoying better jobs that offer enough discretionary income for other expenses – such as entertainment, household durables, and other basic comforts.
As it stands, the country’s ability to generate more jobs in non-essential sectors is curtailed by rice inflation depleting disposable income.
The Marcos administration is exploring solutions that will diversify our rice sources, address our precarious position as the world’s largest importer of rice, and endure the effects of El Nino. Cheaper rice means more and better jobs.