Covid may leave over 1M young Pinoys jobless
There would be over a million young Filipinos without a job this year if the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is only contained within six months and much more than that if not, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the the International Labour Organization (ILO) warned on Tuesday.
In their “Tackling the Covid-19 Youth Employment Crisis in Asia and the Pacific” report, the Manila-based multilateral lender and the United Nations labor body used two scenarios to project youth unemployment numbers in the Philippines and select countries in the region.
Under the first scenario, where the coronavirus is contained within three months after efforts to do so began, the number of jobless young Filipinos is estimated at 687,000 this year, or 15.1 percent.
This is better than Fiji’s 29.8 percent, India’s 29.5 percent; Indonesia’s 22.7 percent, Bangladesh’s 20.5 percent, Mongolia’ 28.5 percent, Sri Lanka’s 32.5 percent and Pakistan’s 17.3 percent.
Under the second, where the disease is curbed within half a year after containment measures started, the figure is forecast to reach 1.019 million, or 19.5 percent.
This projection is better than Sri Lanka’s 37.8 percent, Fiji’s 36.8 percent, India’s 32.5 percent, Mongolia’s 30.4 percent, Indonesia’s 25.3 percent, Bangladesh’s 24.8 percent, Thailand’s 22.1 percent and Pakistan’s 21.5 percent.
According to the report, three of the four main sectors where young Filipinos found work were in what’s called the Covid crisis high-impact category. These are wholesale and retail trade, accommodation and food services, and manufacturing.
ADB and ILO said the coronavirus pandemic also interrupted education and training, noting that in “the Philippines, three-quarters of both firm-level apprenticeships and internships were completely disrupted…”
They also said the pandemic-induced economic slowdown caused the majority of companies who responded to the report to discontinue providing wages or stipends to apprentices and interns.
For the whole Asia and the Pacific, the ADB estimated that job losses among young people might reach 9.9 million under the first scenario and 14.8 million under the second.
“A longer containment period will naturally result in higher job losses. For most countries, a six-month period would reach into September because containment started near the beginning of April. This is likely the case for the Philippines,” the report said.
The report urged governments in the region to engage with young people in policy and social dialogue, and adopt urgent, large-scale and targeted interventions.
They need to focus on labor market policies, such as youth-targeted wage subsidies and public employment programs, and measures to mitigate disruptions to education and training, it added.
The report was made to assess the damaging impact of the pandemic on youth employment in the region and to recommend critical policy responses.
“The results are based on the estimated impact of the pandemic on sector output for each country and the resulting decline in the demand for labor,” the ADB and ILO said.
Source: TheManila Times
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