'W. Mindanao has highest employment rate'

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur , Philippines  –Western Mindanao, also known as the Zamboanga Peninsula, registered the highest employment rate among the country’s 17 regions last year.

Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) assistant director for Region 9 Yahyah Centi announced recently that the region recorded a 92-percent employment rate in the last 12 months.

Centi said employment was highest in Zamboanga City – the region’s commercial, industrial and educational center – and Pagadian City, the new seat of the regional government.

Centi said the growing manufacturing sector including the sardine-making companies in the coastal districts of Ayala and Recodo, are the main employers in the city.

The DOLE regional executive said employment opportunities in Pagadian have also increased since the 2009 transfer of the regional seat of government from Zamboanga City.

Centi said the high productivity of the region has kept unemployment levels below the five percent mark. He said joint government-private sector efforts in keeping industrial peace enabled companies to operate smoothly and kept costs at manageable levels.

He said DOLE’s aggressive programs in providing opportunities for employment and skills matching of available work force has allowed the expansion of the regional economy.