Climate change and declining productivity due to high production costs and the impact of smuggling of agricultural products made farming and fishing jobs the top job decliners, local economists said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that while unemployment and underemployment improved, the number of employed Filipinos declined leading to joblessness in farming and fishing subsectors.
The decline in jobs was led by the Agriculture and forestry sector which saw a 1.99-million decline in jobs. The amount includes the 1.6-million jobs in elementary occupations such as farm laborers and fisherfolks, reported Business Mirror.
“I think there are still typhoons expected to come in, so if that’s the case, we will continue to lose jobs in agri unless we improve on agrilogistics,” De La Salle University economist Maria Ella Oplas said.
“There will definitely be a food security problem with the continuing typhoons unless we upgrade our agro-logistics,” she added.
She explained agro-logistics as planting, harvesting, sorting, grading, storage, transport, marketing, and others. In short, it is the “whole cycle” and a “comprehensive” approach to agriculture in the country.
Alex Escucha, president of the Institute for Economic Development and Economic Analysis (IDEA) said the job losses in the agriculture sector were no longer surprising.
Apart from the typhoons, he said agriculture growth has not been robust.
Escucha said farm growth in the second and third quarters of 2024 contracted 2.3 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively. Palay growth even posted a double-digit decline at 12 percent in the third quarter.
With slow growth, Escucha said agriculture has not been able to attract job seekers and many children of farmers are also not keen on making agriculture their source of livelihood.
“Children of farmers choose not to pursue farming because of the very poor economic and financial returns,” Escucha added.
In his last State of the Nation Address, President Marcos said officials have recognized that food security cannot be attained through self-sufficiency.
He said the lackluster performance of the farm sector and the growth of the population requires the country to not only improve food production but also supplement it with imports.
This is crucial, Escucha said, since the Word Bank projects that the agriculture sector for the next 5 years is expected to grow by a percent or less.
Oplas said if there is a decline in jobs in the agriculture sector, this can also mean an increase in jobs in other sectors such as manufacturing and services.
Latest PSA data revealed that manufacturing and accommodation and food service activities were the industries that saw the largest increases in employment with an addition of 784,000 and 528,000 jobs, respectively.
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said the government has recognized the challenges posed by calamities.