Normin’s underemployment highest in Mindanao

WHEN statistics start to speak and tell you that the January 2012 Labor Force Survey (LFS) results of the country registered an employment rate of 92.8 percent, which is not significantly different from the estimate reported in January 2011, which was 92.6 percent, what will be your outright reaction?

In the same vein, when statistics will unfold before your eyes and show you another findings obtained from the survey that of the total employed persons in the Philippines in January 2012, 62.1 percent were working full time while 36.7 percent were part-time workers, what will be your immediate response?

Such rhetorical questions might lead one to think critically and to start untying the entangled thread that complicates the issue on underemployment as one brings to the fore these questions – “Who are the underemployed?” “How does underemployment differ from unemployment?

While unemployment has been a common topic of discussion, underemployment and its effects have not been given much attention, even though the number of underemployed workers has also increased.

It has been said that “unemployment and underemployment are considered as the two difficult socio-economic problems that can cause undesirable effects on the person’s economic and social status.

The easiest way to present the concept that illustrates the meaning of unemployment is when one is in a jobless condition. On the other hand, underemployment refers to a condition wherein an employed individual’s work is insufficient to fulfill his needs. Moreover, employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours are considered underemployed.

According to NSO Administrator Carmelita N. Ericta, “the number of underemployed persons in the country in January 2012 was estimated at 7.0 million placing the underemployment rate at 18.8 percent. The underemployment rate in January 2011 was estimated at 19.4 percent. Fifty-nine percent of the total underemployed persons were visibly underemployed or working for less than 40 hours during the reference week. Those working for 40 hours or more accounted for 38.8 percent. A large percentage of the underemployed were working in the agriculture sector (43.8%) and services sector (40.5%). The underemployed in the industry sector accounted for 15.7 percent.”

What about Northern Mindanao ?

Based on the Preliminary Results of the January 2012 Labor Force Survey conducted by the National Statistics Office, the underemployment rate for Northern Mindanao was posted at 26.6 percent. Though it decreased by 1.7 percentage points from 28.3 percent a year ago, it still registered as the highest among the Mindanao regions and also higher than the national figure of 18.8 percent. Some of this number of people employed for less than 40 hours a week means that there is less money being brought home to pay for living expenses, barely enough to pay for the basic needs of the family.

Underemployment is often related to marginal work, and therefore creates substantial distress and hardship to the individuals. Most underemployed persons are living on low wages and/or in poverty and they have nothing to spare for the education of their children, leading to an increase in the number of uneducated children and those who have dropped out from school. This would then pose another problem on the labor force in the future as these children would find it hard to look for a job that would fit their qualification. As cited in an online article in the Journal of Management, “‘I Have a Job, But…’ A Review of Underemployment,” by University of Nevada, Reno Assistant Professor Frances M. McKee-Ryan and University of Alabama Assistant Professor Jaron Harvey, underemployment brings potential detrimental effects to individuals, organizations and society.

Along with the decreasing trend on the underemployment, Northern Mindanao also experienced a decline on the unemployment rate which was estimated at 4.3 percent, indicating 0.6 percentage point lower compared a year ago with 4.9 percent. Despite the vast development of numerous establishments and industries in the region, still some people were not able to get hold of a job.

On the other hand, the labor force participation rate for the region is posted at 69.2 percent. It showed a slight increase of 0.8 percentage point from 68.4 percent in 2011. This placed the regional employment rate at 95.7 percent, higher by 0.6 percent compared to last year’s rate of 95.1 percent. However, employment growth was not sufficient to reduce unemployment because of population growth and increased labor force participation.

Across industry groups, those employed in the services sector comprised the largest group, making up nearly half (45.1%) of the total employed persons. Employed persons engaged in wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles comprised the largest group in the services sector (17.0% of total employed).

Workers in the agriculture sector comprised the second largest group, consisting of 44.7 percent of the total employed persons. Only 10.2 percent of the total employed was in the industry sector.

Among the various occupation groups, the laborers and unskilled workers comprised the largest group making up 39.6 percent of the total employed persons in January 2012. Farmers, forestry workers and fishermen were the second largest group with 18.5 percentage share.

Indeed, underemployment might be a complex phenomenon that is difficult to study, but if it would not be given attention, it will continue to bring more challenges that will affect the individuals and the economy.

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Aves conferred as father of brgy civil registration

         THE Philippine Association of Civil Registrars (PACR) through its President Dorotheo O. Lacbain Jr., a municipal civil registrar—conferred to Director Salvador A. Aves of the National Statistics Office, Region 10 the title Father of Barangay Civil Registration System (BCRS)" during the 5th Regional Convention on Barangay Civil Registration System held on October 11-12, 2012 at Grand Caprice Restaurant and Convention Center in Cagayan de Oro City. NSO Administrator and Civil Registrar General Carmelita N. Ericta with Director Lourdes Hufana of the Civil Registry Department and more than 1,700 participants witnessed the conferment of title to Mr. Aves. Earlier, Mr. Aves conceptualized and implemented the Barangay Civil Registration System (BCRS) whenhe introduced it in Region 10 as its flagship project then and was aggressively implemented in provinces of Bukidnon and Agusan del Sur. His idea of BCRS was conceived largely due to his concern for the less privileged and deprived sector of the populace, the indigenous peoples. BCRS was introduced with the belief that if civil registration is conveyed to the barangay level, the recognized constraints will be countered; thus, extending the civil registration services to the barangay constituents. The objective of the project is to include the IPs and Muslims in the Civil Registration System, thereby including them in the privileges that complement those who are registered. It was a humble contribution and vehicle in instituting change that could propel them towards the mainstream of Philippine society, while at the same time protecting their distinct cultural practices and traditions as guaranteed by the Constitution. BCRS has been adopted by other regions until it has been practiced nationwide. It also gained recognition in Asia and the Pacific as a viable model of improving the registration of births. The German agency, GTZ, got interested in trying this scheme in Indonesia where civil registration cum population administration system was established. Mr. Aves was also conferred the titled "Father of Philippine Association of Building Officials "in October 28, 2003 at the Philippine Convention Center, Manila in recognition of his efforts in unifying the Building Officials into one cohesive and united group empowered to plan and amend the National Building Code, thereby making it responsive to the changing times. This was triggered when Mr. Aves realized that the quality of private building construction statistics processed by NSO was deteriorating after the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) ceased to exercise supervision over building officials due to the implementation of the Local Government Code.

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Looking back: Stepping forward thru BCRS

A number of theories on empowerment have taken the time to evolve to make it a very substantive word. There is no doubt that the concept of empowerment has assumed an increasing interest to researchers, practitioners and even to the citizens. A very simple way of understanding empowerment is to equate it with increased awareness and increased control of one's life. One can surmise that the opposite of empowerment is powerlessness which according to Keiffer (1984) when viewed at the individual level can be seen as the expectation of the person that his/her own actions will be ineffective in influencing the outcome of life events.

What has this to do with civil registration?

If we were to take a look at the 2010 Census of Population and Housing, we would see that Northern Mindanao recorded 4,297,323 population and a growth rate of 2.14 since the last two decades. This implies that there is a corresponding growing need for more efforts to raise the level of awareness among the people to register the vital events of their lives - births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages, and all such events that have something to do with an individual's entrance and departure from life together with the changes in civil status that may occur to a person during his lifetime. Two decades and three years ago, the NSO -UNICEF Multi Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) revealed that of the 1999 five million or 7 percent of the 75 million Filipinos living in the coun-try were not registered with the Local Civil Registrars. This was also supported by the CENSUS 2000 report which indicated that three out of ten Filipino children under the age of five did not have birth certificates.

It may be recalled that in 1993, the Barangay Civil Registration System (BCRS) was introduced in Region 10 to improve the low level of civil registration with the belief that if civil registration is conveyed to the barangay level , the recognized constraints (such as topographical features which made it difficult for people especially the indigenous people to travel to the town center just to have vital events registered) will be countered. The idea of BCRS was conceived largely due to the concern of this author for the less privileged and deprived sector of the populace, the indigenous peoples. It was designed to be a humble contribution and vehicle in instituting change that could propel them towards the mainstream of Philippine society while protecting their distinct cultural practices and traditions as guaranteed by the Constitution at the same time. The objective of the project is to include IPs and Muslims in the Civil Registration System; thus, including them in the privileges that complement those who are registered. BCRS was first introduced in Bukidnon and Agusan del Sur as a flagship project of Region 10 which later on became a viable model in improving the civil registration in the country. BCRS is basically a process of facilitating the registration of vital events at the barangay level through the barangay LGUs with the Barangay Secretary as the Focal Person. Putting BCRS into action has actualized the empowerment of the barangays, and has given invisible children who had been deprived of their right to a name their identity through birth registration.

Thus, it is the fervent hope of the organizers of the 5th BCRS Regional Conference that this undertaking will lead the way ahead to a more empowered and more mobilized barangays. After all, "Sa Barangay Nagsisimula Ang Pagbabago."

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