MANILA – The employment outlook for the next quarter is more bullish, according to a survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Result of its Business Expectation Survey indicated that the employment outlook index for the fourth quarter surged to 27.4 percent, its highest level since the BSP made nationwide its BES survey in 2006.

The index for the third quarter this year stood at 22.1 percent while year-ago rate was at 23.2 percent.

In particular, businesses involved in financial intermediation, hotels and restaurants, business activities, transportation and real estate were the most optimistic on their outlook.

This development coincided with the record-high confidence index for the fourth quarter of this year also on account of optimism for robust business activity in the incoming holiday season and next year's elections, among others.

On the other hand, the over-all business outlook for the third quarter of this year is lower at 42.5 percent from last quarter's 44.5 percent. But it is way better than the 34.1 percent same period last year.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the decline in the index relative to the second quarter this year is understandable given the rainy reason.

He noted that in the six years that the survey was conducted nationwide, there was a balance on the drop in the improvement and the decline in the over-all index for the third quarter of the year.

Central bank data show that the drop in the third quarter index transpired in 2007, 2008 and this year, on account of the global economic slowdown and the euro debt crisis.

On the other hand, the third quarter over-all index from 2009-2011 improved relative to the second quarter due to expected and eventual recovery of the global economy.

Similarly, the over-all indices for the first three quarters this year are at levels of over 40 percent, better than in previous year's except in 2007 when the domestic economy posted its over three decades high expansion of 7.4 percent.

Guinigundo said business people are generally more bullish on their outlook this year compared to 2011 because there were lots of uncertainties both in the global and domestic economy last year.

“Moving on to 2013, I think that the positive sentiment will be carried over to the third quarter relative to year-on-year,” he added.*PNA

back to top