Thousands of graduates in Negros Oriental’s colleges and universities will join the labor force starting this week. For some who are yet in the job market, this week will be the start of times of uncertainty.
“Am I good enough?” The question singer/actress Whitney Houston was said to have asked herself numerous times, according to her friend Kevin Costner, will surely cross the minds of most or all the graduates as they look for jobs.
Some will be unlucky. Data from the National Statistics Office as of October 2011 says that six out of every 100 Filipinos in the labor force are unemployed. Most of these unemployed, said the NSO data, are male, between 15-24 years old and only attained secondary education.
There will be some who will not land in a job they desire. The underemployment rate stood at 21.4 percent. Roughly translated, one out of every five workers are paid lower than the industry standard for the skills they possess, or are occupying positions for which they are overqualified. We’ve heard of nurses working as call center agents for lack of opportunities to serve as nurses.
There, however, is wonderful news–the employment rate is at 93 percent. That means that 93 out of every 100 people of working age have a job. That information alone should give anyone confidence in their job-hunting skills. We’re not talking of people who say there’s no future in this country and decide to seek the proverbial greener pastures abroad. The 93 percent, translated to 7.1 million people in Region 7 as of October 2011.
“If one looks at the unemployment rate alone, one would miss the fact that there were actually 870,000 new employment generated from July 2010 to July 2011,” NEDA Assistant Director General Ruperto Majuca said.
Well, that may be true. If we try to focus on the donut rather than the hole, we may start looking at life from a whole new perspective.
The Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce says that the Dumaguete economy is actually growing at a rate of more than 30 percent every year. That rate is much bigger than the 4 percent GDP for 2011. Leading the City’s growth is money invested in education as well as money coming from abroad through OFW remittances and Business Process Outsourcing companies like call centers.
So the future does look bright for this year’s graduating class. With diligence and determination, our graduates will be having jobs and become productive citizens in no time.
