WOMEN and the youth bore the brunt of pandemic job losses in four Asean countries, including the Philippines, according to a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report.
ADB said people aged 15 to 24, who represent less than 15 percent of the workforce in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, accounted for as much as 45 percent of job losses at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
In the report titled, “A Crisis Like No Other—Covid-19 and Labor Markets in Southeast Asia,” women accounted for 60 percent of all job losses, including 90 percent in manufacturing, in Thailand, at the height of the pandemic.
“Despite unprecedented government responses, Covid-19 has exposed significant social protection gaps associated with high and persistent informality across the region,” said ADB Director General for Southeast Asia Ramesh Subramaniam.
“It also has provided an opportunity for countries to address these gaps and expand coverage to new beneficiaries and excluded groups. As recovery takes hold, the focus of fiscal policy can shift more strongly from relief to stimulus, and from stimulus to structural investments that will promote sustained and inclusive growth,” he explained.
The report said young workers suffered a disproportionate amount of job losses, while women were more likely to exit the labor force following job loss than men. The ADB said exits from the labor force especially in Indonesia and the Philippines that had low female labor force participation rates will have long-term adverse effects on the working lives of women.
ADB said young workers were more likely to lose jobs mainly because they dominated hard-hit sectors such as hotels and restaurants, as well as wholesale and retail trade.
Women, in all the countries examined by the report and across all age groups, were more likely to leave the labor force, mainly to take care of their family during the pandemic. Women rejoining the workforce by early 2021 were mostly self-employed or in the informal sector, which may hurt their career development in the long run.
“Although many female workers reentered the labor market in the second half of 2020, labor reallocation patterns indicate that part of the employment recovery consisted of ‘distress employment’ or ‘added worker effect,’ suggesting that the quality of employment had taken a hit,” the report stated.
Based on the report, a total of 8.713 million jobs were lost in the Philippines between the first and second quarters of 2020. It added that 52 percent of workers in the Philippines became unemployed.
Biggest job losses
The total job losses in the country are more than twice the job losses in Indonesia at 3.608 million; more than three times the 2.434 million jobs lost in Vietnam; and over seven times that of Thailand at 1.079 million.
With this, the Philippines experienced the steepest decline in economic growth with a contraction of 9.6 percent in the second quarter of 2020.
Further, the Philippines had the largest share of households at 84 percent experiencing income losses in February–April 2020 compared with the same period in 2019.
“A rise in self-employment and unpaid family work resulted in job gains in Q3 [third quarter] 2020, with 24 percent of those gains occurring in wholesale and retail trade. In the last quarter of 2020, the Philippines posted a net job loss of around 1.5 million, tempered by the labor reallocation toward agriculture,” the report, however, said.
In order to address the problems, ADB noted the national government implemented programs such as the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), which was linked to the existing Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
The SAP targeted its coverage to expand to 13.3 million low-income families or 52 percent of the population, in addition to the beneficiaries of the 4Ps program. The benefit amount of 4Ps recipients increased by twofold or even threefold.
SAP also had the highest adequacy of benefits among large-scale cash transfer programs implemented in the region, with a maximum benefit reaching 72 percent of the household income of the lowest income quintile.
“Additionally, an emergency subsidy program was introduced, to provide a one-time cash grant and food packs to households identified by their local government units as low income, but who did not qualify for benefits under SAP. In addition to social assistance programs, the Philippines also implemented a public works program for informal workers affected by the crisis, which included displaced, underemployed, and seasonal workers,” ADB said.
Meanwhile, the ADB said the pandemic worsened inequalities between skilled and unskilled workers, hurting low-skilled as well as middle-skilled ones whose jobs face automation or are being moved elsewhere. Informal workers, self-employed workers, temporary workers, and migrant workers were among the most vulnerable groups.
Informal workers, who are overrepresented among the region’s poor and near-poor workers, were particularly vulnerable to the crisis because of limited job security and social protection. The region’s 10 million migrant workers were also hit by the restrictions on travel and mobility, because they often don’t have job security or access to health and welfare systems in their host countries.
