The Philippine Online Chronicles

Four out of every 10 Filipinos are in “vulnerable employment conditions,” according to the latest report by the Geneva-based International Labor Organization (ILO).

In its report titled "Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a deeper jobs crisis," the ILO said the country is hamstrung by "the large number of workers who are in poor quality and low-paid jobs, with intermittent and insecure work arrangements and poor working conditions," adding that the percentage of workers in vulnerable employment stand at 40.2 percent.

The ILO also noted that employment growth in the country “was volatile as a result of fluctuations in GDP growth stemming in part from major tropical storms that damaged agricultural produciton and displaced large numbers of workers."

Around one-third of the country’s 38.5 million employed workforce as of October 2011 is in the agriculture sector.

Previously, the labor department admitted that underemployment “was a major concern in 2011,” noting that the number of underemployed persons increased by almost half a million to 7.16 million last year and accounted for 19.3 percent of the total employed. Underemployed workers are those employed but still looking for additional sources of income.

600 million jobs needed

The ILO said in the same annual global report that the world has to generate at least 600 million jobs in the next 10 years “to sustain growth and maintain social stability.”

An estimated 900 million workers, mostly in developing countries, currently live on less than $2 a day, according to the report.

"After three years of continuous crisis conditions in global labor markets and against the prospect of a further deterioration of economic activity, there is a backlog of global unemployment of 200 million," the ILO said in a statement.

It added that more than 400 million new jobs would have to be created in the coming decade to absorb about 40 million in additional people joining the work force every year.

"Despite strenuous government efforts, the jobs crisis continues unabated, with one in three workers worldwide -- or an estimated 1.1 billion people -- either unemployed or living in poverty," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.

The UN boday estimated that the number of unemployed globally has increased by 27 million since 2009.