Ibon: PH economy failing to generate enough jobs for young workers

MANILA, Philippines — The economy’s “weak” industrial base “limits the creation of stable, productive, and better-paying jobs,” Ibon Foundation said, pointing out that many young Filipinos are unemployed because the economy itself is “failing.”

The local think tank made the point as the ongoing reframing of higher education stirs controversy, saying education planners’ focus on whether to invest in so-called human capital for economic competitiveness or develop a wholesome citizenry reflects “an overstated tension.”

“It is becoming more apparent that the purpose of reframing is to respond to the evolving demands of the global labor market, particularly the need for a workforce equipped for artificial intelligence (AI) and other rapidly advancing digital technologies,” said Rosario Guzman, head researcher of Ibon Foundation.

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In May, academics across the Philippines opposed the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) proposed reframing of the General Education (GE) curriculum, warning that the planned overhaul could weaken critical thinking, civic formation, and the role of the humanities and social sciences in higher education.

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READ: Academic groups oppose CHED overhaul of GE curriculum

CHED, however, later announced that the rollout would be pushed back to 2028. The proposed reframing would reduce the 36 GE units to 18 or 21 and integrate some courses, such as ethics, philosophy, arts, literature and the history of the Philippines.

READ: GE curriculum shift moved to 2028

But as Guzman pointed out in a think piece released last week, “at the end of the day, reframing continues to be hinged on the same market-driven criteria of employability of graduates and agility of higher education institutions to adapt to ever-changing business needs.”

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“The pressure is unfairly placed on schools to produce whatever skills the global market requires, while the Philippine economy itself goes wherever the global market takes it,” she said.

Deep ‘structural’ problem

Ibon Foundation said more and more young people ages 15 to 24 are seeking work but are unable to find jobs, with the latest youth unemployment rate at 18.6%, “more than three times the reported 6% overall.”

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READ: Jobless rate rises to 4-year high of 6% in July

About 96%, or 1.3 million, of unemployed youth are not in employment, education or training (NEET), while 2 million NEET youth are outside the labor force, bringing the total number of young people neither working nor studying or training to around 3.3 million.

Guzman said “the sheer number points to a problem far more structural than the usual job-skills mismatch long posited by government planners.” She said young people account for 36% of the Philippines’ unemployed.

“This should be a concern not only for higher education institutions and curriculum planners, but even more so for economic development planners. This goes beyond whether young people are acquiring the right skills to whether the economy is creating decent and productive jobs,” she said.

Weak industrial base

Guzman pointed out that agriculture remains the single largest employer of workers with a junior high school (JHS) education or less, followed by wholesale and retail trade.

She said that in the neoliberal economy, both sectors are characterized by low wages, widespread informality, weak labor protection and precarious work — conditions that help explain persistently high underemployment in the Philippines.

“As educational attainment rises, wholesale and retail trade overtakes agriculture as the leading employer, but the quality of employment improves little,” she said.

For Guzman, “this reflects a deeper structural problem: the economy’s weak industrial base limits the creation of stable, productive, and better-paying jobs that can absorb an increasingly educated workforce.”

No economic capacity?

She said the discussion should focus on the economy’s capacity to absorb fresh graduates — not on whether higher education is failing or whether investment in reskilling is insufficient and unable to keep pace with technological changes.

“[The government] does not have a clear industrial policy, nor a serious national industrialization plan on which desired learning competencies may be based,” Guzman said. “Instead, the youth’s employability is largely being tethered to a foreign-investment strategy that assumes jobs will follow once investors come in.”

“The lack of genuine economic development planning is the one failing the youth,” she said.

Based on data presented by the think tank, 9.9 million people in the youth labor force have a JHS education or lower, while 10.2 million are senior high school (SHS) graduates or have higher educational attainment.

Among employed youth, 3 million are JHS graduates or have lower educational attainment, while 2.5 million are SHS graduates or have higher educational attainment. Among all employed Filipinos, 30.3 million have a JHS education or lower, while 18.5 million have an SHS education or higher.

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Some 41% of unemployed Filipino youth are college and senior high school graduates, which Ibon said further shows that higher education has produced a labor force that is hardly employable. /dm