Addressing youth unemployment

RECENTLY, the Senate Committee on Youth which we chair convened its first meeting and public hearing.  Among the measures that were tackled was our Senate Resolution No. 155, seeking an inquiry on the state of youth unemployment and underemployment in the country. 

Youth unemployment has long been a global scourge, one that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This was confirmed by an August 2022 International Labour Organization (ILO) report which found that the pandemic had a disproportionately negative effect on the youth (15 to 24 years old) as compared to any other age group and that youth employment was still lagging globally.  The report estimated that across the world unemployed youths could reach 73 million by the end of 2022, which is around six million above the numbers measured for 2019.

The report also found that the recovery would diverge across the regions. Where the youth employment-to-population ratio (EPR) is expected to return and even surpass pre-pandemic levels in Northern America and throughout most of the European Union (EU), it is seen to remain up to two percentage points below 2019 levels in South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific. Hence, the importance of conducting a Senate inquiry into the situation here in the Philippines. 

As of the June 2022 Labor Force Survey (LFS), an estimated 854,000 among nearly 3 million unemployed Filipinos were aged 15 to 24 years old.  This translated to a youth unemployment rate of 11.8 percent, which is much lower than the 16.5 percent registered throughout 2021, where up to 1.71 million youth were without a job.   

During the hearing, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the top 5 major industries which employed the youth were 1) wholesale, retail, trade; and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; 2) agriculture and forestry;  3) construction; 4) manufacturing; and 5) administrative and other support service activities.

That these industries are also where much of the underemployed youth are working only underscores our longstanding call for the public and private sector to work together towards generating higher-paying, better-quality jobs. We cannot be content with just pushing for the creation of the same low-paying jobs in the same industries.

Action is urgently needed.  The August 2022 ILO report noted that young people who lose their jobs or fail to obtain jobs are particularly vulnerable to “scarring” or the phenomenon where their future labor market outcomes are worse than those of their peers even when the economic conditions where they are situated improve. They are likely to end up accepting jobs for which they are overqualified, which puts them at risk of being trapped in an employment trajectory that involves informality and low pay.

Steps will need to be taken so that the private sector can be better empowered to create employment opportunities that will allow our youth to better provide for themselves and their loved ones.  Hopefully through our hearings, we will find the key interventions  to respond to these as well as identify the necessary investments in strategic sectors.  A possible course of action is to redirect more public investments towards digital, care, and green industries that will not only produce a significant amount of new jobs but also provide a boost to the country’s gross domestic product over time.

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Sen. Sonny Angara has been in public service for 18 years—9 years as Representative of the Lone District of Aurora, and 9 as Senator. He has authored and sponsored more than 250 laws.  He is currently serving his second term in the Senate.  

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Email: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara/PN

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