Youth Unemployment

Bam: Immediately Address Youth Unemployment

A lawmaker urges the government to address the growing number of unemployed Filipino youth, which is currently estimated at 1.32 million.

 

According to the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) and National Statistics Office (NSO), the current national rate of unemployed Filipinos is at 6.6% or at 2.7 million as of January 2015, up from 6.0% as reported in October 2014.

 

From the 6.6%, 49.1 percent of the unemployed Filipinos belong to the age bracket of 15 to 24 years old or 1.32 million.

 

“Nakakaalarma na mas maraming kabataan ngayon ang walang trabaho,” said Sen. Bam, chairman of the Senate Committee on Youth.

 

To help address this problem, Sen. Bam has filed Senate Resolution No. 1268 seeking to encourage concerned government agencies to create employment opportunities for the youth.

 

“1.32 milyong kabataan ang hindi nakakatulong sa kanilang mga pamilya at sa ating bansa,” added Sen. Bam.

 

Also, the resolution also urges government agencies to formulate programs to address the needs of young Filipinos, including the unemployed youth, workers in vulnerable employment and young entrepreneurs.

 

Sen. Bam sees the need for relevant government agencies such as the Department of Labor, Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the National Economic Development Authority to collaborate and coordinate more to address the problem.

 

“In order to strategically and significantly promote job generation for young Filipinos and propose interventions on economic policies, there should be a coordinated policy framework to address the challenges of youth unemployment,” said Sen. Bam.

 

Sen. Bam encouraged the government to prioritize programs that will enhance labor market information, skills training and upgrading, online job matching and entrepreneurial skills.

 

“Through the years, there has been a mismatch between the available jobs and available skills in the labor force, which is considered as one of the main reasons for youth unemployment,” said Sen. Bam.

 

“Kailangang mabigyan ng pagkakataong magkatrabaho o magkanegosyo, at lumago ang ating kabataan sa nararanasang pag-unlad ng ating bansa,” Sen. Bam emphasized.

Youth Entrepreneurship to Address Youth Unemployment

With the graduation season fast approaching, excitement builds up as students prepare themselves for the next phase of their young lives – the professional life.

 

After graduation, they will be scouring newspaper advertisements, join job fairs, sign up on online job websites, visit companies and inquire about possible employment vacancies.

 

A number of these graduates will find jobs in the Philippines; a number will find jobs abroad. Some will work in a formal company; others will be working more informally.  And unfortunately, some will join the ranks of the unemployed.

 

For the Filipino youth, especially those in the last unfortunate set, they have to have better choices. What if rather than just working as an employee, you could become your own boss and run your own enterprise?

 

In the Senate, I have the Youth Entrepreneurship Bill, which aims to expose our Filipino youth to entrepreneurship at a young age and give them a good foundation for business creation in the future.

 

If enacted into law, course programs in entrepreneurship will be developed for primary, secondary and post-secondary schools to give them knowledge how to start and run their own businesses.

 

Moreover, the bill aims to create a fund and support structures to aid starting entrepreneurs in their product development, access to capital, training and other services, to help them establish their own enterprises.

 

The Youth Entrepreneurship Bill was passed on third reading in the Senate and was passed on second reading in the House of Congress recently.

 

I hope that this bill will be enacted into law soon to assist our fresh graduates and young Filipinos.

 

This bill hopes to also address the growing unemployment rate in the country.

The government’s push for inclusive growth will not take off unless the problems of youth unemployment and underemployment are not immediately addressed.

 

The challenge is make our current economic growth felt by every Filipino through generation of jobs and creation of livelihood. And youth entrepreneurship is one of the keys for our Filipino youth to experience this growth for themselves and for their families.

 

First Published On: Youth Enterprising Blog

 

 

Sen. Bam: Youth Unemployment a Growing Epidemic

With an estimated 700,000 fresh graduates joining the ranks of the unemployed, the number of jobless youth ranging from 15 to 24 years old in the country will breach the two million mark

Senator Bam Aquino believes that there will be no end in sight to this alarming trend unless the government launches a massive and serious campaign to address the problem.

“While we commend the government’s efforts to solve the rising number of unemployed youth in the country, it is not enough because, like an epidemic, the number keeps growing and growing every year,” said Aquino, chairman of the Senate Committee on Youth.

At present, Aquino said the number of unemployed youth accounts for half of the country’s 2.9 million jobless workers.

If the definition of youth under Republic Act 8044 is to be followed, the present number of jobless individuals ranging from 15 to 30 years old increased to 2.13 million.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported that there are 3.8 million job vacancies waiting to be filled, especially in industries such as services, construction, tourism, and information, technology and communications, and the business process outsourcing (BPO).

“However, many of these vacancies remain as such because of other factors such as the prevalent job and skills mismatch,” said Aquino, adding that 35.8 percent of the time, applicants are rejected due to lack of competency or skill.

Aquino said the government should take steps to address job mismatch, which stems from lack of proper education and training of applicants for a particular line of work.

“Usually, job mismatch happens when an applicant cannot comply with the technical skills needed for a position,” Aquino said.

Aside from addressing job mismatch, Aquino encouraged the government to come up with programs that will help the youth turn into entrepreneurs.

The Senate has been tackling several bills on youth entrepreneurship to help address the problem of unemployed youth.

“With the slow pace of the country’s legislative mill, it will take months or years before these measures are enacted into law. That’s why the government needs to take the initiative and start these programs right away,” Aquino said.

Aquino believes that the government’s push for inclusive growth will not take off unless the problems of youth unemployment and underemployment are not immediately addressed.

The senator believes that would-be youth entrepreneurs should be given access to financing, training, market linkages, and other means of support that will help them run and develop their own businesses.

Photo source: studentthinktank.eu 

Sen. Bam: Youth Unemployment ‘Growing Epidemic’

Senator Bam Aquino called the huge number of unemployed youth in the country a “growing epidemic” that should be immediately addressed by the government.

 “Youth unemployment is a growing epidemic in the Philippines and all over the world,” the senator said during Tuesday’s first-ever hearing of the Senate Committee on Youth, which he chairs.

According to a data from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), of the 2.8 million jobless Filipinos, 1.42 million or more than half are from the youth sector.

The lawmaker stressed that the government’s push for inclusive growth will not take off unless the problems of youth unemployment and underemployment are not immediately addressed.

To help tackle this, the senator calls on different government agencies such as the DOLE, the Department of Education (DepEd), and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), as well as the private sector, to develop programs that will create more jobs and solve the so-called “job mismatch”, which contributes to the high unemployment rate.

“We call on government agencies, educational institutions, and private companies to work more closely together in solving the problems of youth unemployment and underemployment,” said Sen. Bam.

Aquino stressed that there needs to be better linkages between the private sector and our educational system, “so that our graduates are better equipped for the demands of the industry”.

“We need to ensure that our graduates are equipped to find jobs that fit their skills and educational attainment, after they finish school,” the senator stressed.

If young Filipinos opt to start a new business, the senator said that they should be given access to financing, training, market linkages, and other means of support that will help them run and develop their own businesses.

“This is one of the advocacies of our office, but we need  support from different sectors to push for policies and programs that will open up opportunities for young Filipinos,” the lawmaker emphasized.

Scroll to top