EMPLOYERS will converge in May to draw up strategies on how they can help the government solve the “jobless growth” riddle that has been hounding the Philippine economy. The 34th National Conference of Employers (NCE 34), slated on May 23 and 24 at the Marriott Hotel in Pasay City, carries the theme “Inclusive Growth: Vision, Prescriptions and Action.” The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop), which is organizing the meet, said top corporate executives, entrepreneurs and business leaders will attend the event as they heed the call of the Aquino administration for heightened public-private efforts to achieve inclusive growth. “It takes into account the platform of what the President enunciated in the Philippine Development Plan, which calls on every stakeholder to contribute in their own little way toward the goal of inclusive growths, which means sustained growth that creates jobs,” Ecop said. Earlier, the state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said the irony of a jobless growth continues to hound the Philippines as although the country posted the fastest economic acceleration in Southeast Asia in 2012, it remains as the cellar-dweller in terms of employment rate in the region. The PIDS noted that about 2.8 million Filipinos in the labor force are without jobs as the country’s unemployment rate stayed at a relatively high 7 percent, while underemployment slightly increased to 20 percent from 19.3 percent.
