Freeway

Unemployment

“Statistics show that in terms of providing decent employment for our people, we have not improved in the past five years. Unemployment remains at an average of about 11 percent “Benigno Aquino said to President Arroyo, May 5, 2007.” 11.4% in 2002, 11.3% in 2003, 11.8% in 2004, 11.5% in 2005 and 7.9% in 2006. The 2006 drop rate is due to the change in the definition of unemployment of NSCB Resolution No. 15, Series of 2004, issued on 20 October 2004 which describes he unemployed as those who are 15 years older that has no work, seeking for work and those who are available for work. Philippines is ranked as the highest among the South East Asian countries as to the rate of unemployment. In addition, Aquino again said that despite of the employment projects of the Arroyo government; it still did not made the rate of unemployment in the country improve. Arroyo also reiterated that if the Philippines’ unemployment issue is improving, then why do the Filipinos suffer from being apart from their families here in our country?

7.8% as of the January, 2008 NSO Labor Force Survey is the recorded unemployment rate in the Philippines in which NCR has the highest contribution in this issue. There are two causes of unemployment and those are the lack of job opportunities for the workers and the other is the lack of information about the job opportunities- this means that those people, who are patient enough to find a job, will have a job and those who are not will most likely be unemployed. The causes that are stated can both be applied to the Philippine setting because most Filipinos want to have a job instantly and are too impatient to look for a job. Another is the job vacancy that a certain establishment or company is requiring. An acquired status will be granted to the siblings of a company owner because the owner would rather pass the job to their sons/daughters than to give it to someone else and due to those instances, the demand for employees will lessen. While those who live in rural areas have the least chance of getting jobs because they are far from the establishments and companies in the urban areas. Instead of looking for a job in the urban areas, they would prefer not to because it will require an amount of money that they cannot afford. As a result, it’s either they will be underemployed or unemployed.

Because of cultural integration and in a structural-functional perspective in which a change in one part affects the whole, unemployment has a great effect in the Philippines. The lesser the job opportunities are, the lesser the employed Filipinos will be. The greater the unemployment is, the poorer the families get. And when poverty takes place, the greater the education of their children will be affected. The more uneducated Filipinos get, the lesser the quality of service they can offer and the lesser the investors will be attracted to invest in our country. The lesser investors and other economic transactions are, the lower the Philippine economy will be wherein it is now being experienced for over a long period of time. If an economy is low, it is more likely that there are other problems that we may relate to unemployment. One problem is poverty. And this is when cultural variations take place wherein cultures differ in the varieties of solutions that people do to solve their problems- in this case, it is the unemployment. People will engage in to different solutions that violate the law of their society such as robbery, theft and other related activities. Another case is when men and women engage in prostitution for the sake of having money to provide the needs of their family. Also, in rural areas, the children’s parents would prefer to not let them study and instead, work for the family. This in effect will make the children uneducated and will have less chances of getting a job in their future. The family will be deprives with a good nutrition, education, health and stable housing. There is also a psychological effect to the unemployed. They can have mental illness or they might commit suicide. “Disturbance of equilibrium….leads to impulse to voluntary death” (Durkheim 1897). Anomic Suicide- according to Durkeim is a state of chaotic internal turmoil due to the lack of an imbalance in societal regulation of an individual’s goals and the level of integration into society. Anomie is a state of helplessness and the failure of society to adequately regulate and integrate the individual’s aspirations and goals, thus affecting the one’s self-identity, expectations, and role in society. And with this, those people who are in poverty or in the extremes of life are more likely to commit suicide due to the imbalances in their lives… one result of the imbalance is a role conflict. In relation to unemployment, the people who suffer from depression and those who struggle to achieve what they want, but unfortunately they can’t because of unemployment, would possibly commit suicide. And the more the unemployed people are, the higher the suicidal rate can be…This is how unemployment greatly affects the Philippine economy… and with this, our status as the third world country will most likely stay until the problems are resolved.

The family is the smallest unit in the society by which the parents are the ones who provide a living. Most women when married are often obliged by their husbands to just stay at home and watch over their children and the house in which it is the usual role of mothers in the society. The man has the role to provide a living for their family. An extended family will most likely to have family members who are unemployed because the incomes of some in the family is enough and sometimes, too much for them. And the more the family members are in an extended family, the more income they will receive that is why it also contributes to the unemployment rate in the country. Having an extended family is not the only reason of unemployment in the country. Another reason is the overpopulation. No matter how much job opportunities that a country provides, if the population is not controlled, unemployment will continue to flourish. “Unemployment has remained high in the Philippines, at almost twice the level of neighboring countries, despite relatively fast employment growth in the past decade. Employment growth was not sufficient to reduce unemployment because of rapid population growth and increased labor force participation” (Brooks, Ray February 1, 2002)

Educational attainment and school image are also a factor when it comes to employment. Those who graduated from a prestigious or well known school will possibly have a better job opportunity than those who came to an ordinary school. That is why when a person studies at a prestigious school, they become ethnocentric to the fact that they became discriminative. An opposite effect comes to those students who graduated in a “not so popular schools” in which they became xenocentric that results to the lack of confidence and drive to pursue their plans. Educational attainment also ranks the person when it comes to job vacancies. If s/he is only a highschool or elementary graduate, they are more likely to be placed in a lower type of job. Social stratification takes place because most companies prefer highly educated employees than those who just finished elementary and highschool. Socio-economic status differentiates the highly educated to those who are not. Blue-collared jobs are for those who have lower educational attainment and white-collared job for those who have a high educational attainment and sometimes to those who graduated form a prestigious school. “If you earn a degree and get a good job, your future is assured” (Elmer Epistola, 2003, A Hundred Jobs from Pepe and Pilar). This is how Filipino employers rank and accepts their worker that is why most Filipinos who have not been given a chance to finish school lack the hope for them to have a better job.

Gender can also be an issue when it comes to unemployment. As an example, women who prefer to do manly works are not accepted by some establishments or companies because it requires a man to do the job. They underestimate the women’s capability to do the manly works because some companies think that a man’s role in a job is only for a man and not for a woman. This will now result to the deprivation of women to work in a job that she prefers and eventually, another job opportunity has been lost for women. While for men, they are also experiencing gender discrimination. For example, it is most preferred that a nurse is a women instead of men because women are more gentle and gracious in handling and taking care of the patients.

Although working abroad contributes greatly to the Philippine economy, we still have to look at the reason behind it and why do they prefer to work overseas. Because of insufficient demand of workers in the Philippines, Filipinos, who are looking for jobs are not given a chance to work in the country. And because the Philippines use English as the 2^nd language, we have an advantage to communicate and make transactions to other countries. As a result, Filipinos will go abroad and look for other jobs for them to make a living. And because there is a huge demand of workers abroad, of course, the Filipinos who are unemployed will definitely take advantage of the demand just for them to earn money.

“little by little they lost their old traditions, the mementos of their past; they gave up their writing, their songs, their poems, their laws in order to learn by wrote other doctrines which they did not understand, another morality, another aesthetics different from those inspired by their climate and their manner of thinking…degrading themselves in their own eyes; they became ashamed of what was their own; they began to admire and praise whatever was foreign and incomprehensible; their spirit was dismayed and it surrendered to…this disgust of themselves” – Jose Rizal, Philippine National Hero

Xenocentrism is again an issue regarding unemployment. Filipinos are all fund of buying imported goods and products. When the Balik-bayan boxes arrive, all the members of the family are gathered and all anxious to see the things inside it. Every piece of things that are inside the boxes are distributed to the family. They are all very glad and exited to eat or use the things that they got-but what about the local commodities? As an example, between a locally made bag and a D&G bag, at a first glance, no second thoughts Filipinos would get the imported bag than the locally made bag. Another is when buying shoes, Marikina-made shoes or NIKE shoes? Again, with no doubts, Filipinos would prefer the NIKE shoes. Colonial Mentality…it’s a Filipino sickness that prevails for a long period of time… It is one of the major reasons why there is a high percentage of unemployment in the Philippines. Because of the preference of the Filipinos when it comes to buying of commodities, a lot of Filipino workers lose their jobs. And as a result, local businesses will suffer from huge losses and will be forced to lay-off workers or even worse, they might close their businesses. Employees will lose their job and will find it hard for them to find another job. Marx showed that, under the inducement of competition for the market, capitalist industry is always seeking to reduce costs of production by utilising labor-displacing machinery or other means of securing the same output with less labour, thus creating unemployment. They are after the profit and sometimes, disregard the quality of the commodities. They reduce employees so that they can gain greater money instead of giving it to the workers as their wages/salaries.

In a country like ours, unemployment is strongly inevitable. The society experiences a negative domino effect due to the issue of unemployment. If there is unemployment, there is poverty, health problems and criminal acts etc… It is one of the main roots of the low economic profile of the Philippines. Because as one part changes… the others will follow..

Bibliography

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/40669/Noynoy-to-Arroyo-Wheres-job-for-Pinoys

http://www.nscb.gov.ph/resolutions/2004/15.asp

http://www.census.gov.ph/

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-121245832.html

http://www.marxists.org/archive/hardcastle/unemployment.htm