Farm job volatility seen as structural, not just result of seasonality

PERSISTENT month-to-month employment swings in agriculture point to structural weaknesses beyond seasonal factors, analysts said, after the industry lost more than half a million jobs in November even as overall employment expanded.

- By Vonn Andrei E. Villamiel

Employment in agriculture fell 5.7% month on month in November, equivalent to 594,000 jobs lost, according to results of the Labor Force Survey issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Total employment rose 1.34% from October to 49.27 million.

On a year-on-year basis, agricultural employment declined 0.71% to 9.85 million in November, shedding 69,000 jobs.

Former Agriculture Undersecretary Fermin D. Adriano said agriculture jobs typically taper off in November due to the close of the rice harvest, a time when vegetable and orchard farmers also cannot harvest because this is still peak typhoon season,” he told BusinessWorld via Viber.