Unemployed youth urged to develop life skills

MANILA, Philippines - With graduation just around the corner, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz yesterday challenged unemployed youth to develop “life skills” to be able to jump- start their careers, either in wage employment or entrepreneurship.

Baldoz said that while youth are seen as “dynamic, potential innovators and leaders in the present-day world of work, surprisingly, they still compose almost half, or 49.1 percent, of the country’s unemployed population of 2.4 million.”

“Skills gap, or the mismatch between labor demand and supply, is the culprit for the high youth unemployment in the country,” Baldoz noted, explaining that a considerable part of the unemployed population consists of educated workers – mostly young.

Baldoz added that 44 percent of the unemployed have reached or graduated from high school while 35.3 percent graduated from college.

“It takes a long time for young Filipinos who leave their schools or universities to pursue careers in the labor market, simply because of the skills gap,” Baldoz said, citing a survey of the Asian Development Bank in Manila and Cebu.

 The survey revealed it takes a college graduate one year to find his first job, and up to two years to find a regular job.

 The study also showed the period is even longer for a high school graduate, who takes up to three years to find his first job, and four years to find a regular wage job.