This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 7, March 20-26, 2005
SPECIAL REPORT
Joblessness Awaits Batch 2005
Only a few of the
385,000 students who will graduate this April will land a job within the next
two years. Many of those able to get a job will be in call centers.
By
Carl Marc Ramota The
country will have about 385,000 new graduates by April. Unfortunately, the
employment pool can accommodate only a few of these graduates thus leaving many
others asking themselves whether college education was worth the time and money
at all. Only
four of every 10 graduates will land a job within the year of their graduation,
a recent study reveals. Many of those able to get a job within two years will be
in call centers.
In a recent report, the
National Statistics Office (NSO) confirmed that the
Philippines' jobless rate rose to 11.3 percent in January from last October’s
10.9 percent. This means some 4.03 million Filipino adults were unemployed as of
end-January, up from 3.9 million a year earlier.
About 35.9 percent of those with jobs as of end-January were employed in the
agriculture sector, while services and industry sectors accounted for 48.4
percent and 15.7 percent, respectively. The
government through the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) admitted that the
6.1 percent supposed growth in the Gross Domestic Product is not enough to
generate new jobs especially for fresh graduates.
Underemployment rate was pegged at 17.6 percent in 2004, higher than the 17
percent rate in 2002 and 2003. Lack
of job opportunities is forcing many college degree holders to work in call
centers or as domestic helpers and caregivers just to earn a living, even if
these jobs do not match their degrees for which their families spent large sums
of money.
Education-labor mismatch
In a recent report, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) projects that a
third (123,584) of this year’s prospective college graduates will come from
business-related courses such as accountancy, masters in business, secretarial
and commerce. Others will come from the education discipline (88,062 or 20
percent); engineering and technology (56,851, 13 percent); mathematics and
computer science (943,141, 9 percent); and medical and allied courses like
nursing, radiology and medicine (30,166, 6.9 percent). Some 13,831 students are
also expected to graduate from the maritime discipline this year.
But these new
graduates, as their previous batches were, are doomed to become idle in the
following months, even years after graduation. A study
conducted by Dr. Roberto Padua and Dr. Juliet Daguay of Mindanao Polytechnic
State College reveals that lack of jobs has forced 41 percent of males and 50
percent of females to become idle after graduation. Only 40 percent
of the total graduates are likely to land jobs within the year of their
graduation. The other 40 percent will not be able to find employment until next
year while the remaining 20 percent will probably become unemployed for the next
two years. On the average, a graduate has to wait for 18 months before being
employed. In a separate
study, Dr. Adriano Arcelo, a consultant for the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in his study found that medicine
graduates have the shortest waiting period, with only 1.87 months. Criminology
graduates, on the other hand, have to wait for 8.67 months before landing in a
job. Meanwhile, electrical engineering, medical technology and social sciences
major will be idle for at least 4.2 months before becoming employed.
But the waiting
period for most graduates may take forever. Apparently, jobs requiring higher
education comprise only around 7.2 percent of the total job opportunities in the
country. And ironically, elementary graduates (11.1 million) and high school
graduates (10.9 million) make up most of the employed sector based on the census
data in 2003. It is probable however that these comprise the sector that is
largely considered underemployed, are self-employed or doing odd jobs. That is why even
some of the deemed prestigious courses register high unemployment rate.
Surprisingly, leading the pack of unemployed professionals are lawyers, with a
20.55 percent unemployment rate. They are closely followed by architecture and
commerce graduates with 20.48 percent and chemical engineering majors with 19.78
percent. Unemployed Given such a
scenario, employment uncertainties will definitely hound this year’s graduates
as much as it continues to hound last year’s graduates. Karen Baral, 19,
and a graduating Information Technology (IT) Major at the Polytechnic University
of the Philippines fears she might have a hard time finding a job related to her
degree. Karen admits she
joined the bandwagon of fresh high school graduates who took IT and other
computer-related courses as these were “in demand” during the latter years of
the 1990s. However, it was quickly replaced by nursing and care-giver programs
at the start of the new millennium. “Probably I’ll
apply for a part-time job on websites while waiting for employment,” she told
Bulatlat. “The way I see it, in the end I might still land in a low-profile and
lowly-paid clerical or secretarial job, if there are no other jobs available.”
She added that
she is also considering joining her classmates in applying as call center
agents. Karen is just
one of the college students who are anxious of being sidelined after graduation.
Bulatlat
© 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Contributed to Bulatlat
Thus many of this year’s graduates are left with only two options: either to
work in call centers or leave the country. This largely explains the continuous
brain drain in the country and the soaring underemployment rate.