SUPPLY AND DEMAND OF THE NEW LABOR ENTRANTS: YEAR The study is an evaluation of the supply and demand of the new labor entrants from

Transcription

1 SUPPLY AND DEMAND OF THE NEW LABOR ENTRANTS: YEAR The study is an evaluation of the supply and demand of the new labor entrants from Year Many of today s graduates have a hard time finding decent jobs that are suited to their educational background. 1 Labor statistics show that roughly half a million graduates are unable to get work in their chosen field despite numerous job vacancies in their industry. Employers often complain about the lack of graduates with employable skills who can easily respond to changing demands of the workplace. 2 The critical discrepancy between the quality of graduates supplied by academic and training institutions and the demands of the industry is frequently noted. 3 Most of the unemployed college graduates are those who earned degrees on Medical Courses, Trade, Craft and Industrial Programs, Engineering and Architectural Programs. On the other hand, data gathered by the Bureau of Labor Employment Statistics (BLES) from their BLES Integrated Survey (BITS) suggest that the top 3 hard to fill vacancies among professionals for the period January, 2009 to June, 2010 include 1) accountants and auditors; 2) electronics and communications engineers; and 3) systems analysts and designers. 4 1 Abellanosa, Paolo. School-taught skills vs industry-demand skills. April 9, Albert, Jose Ramon G. Is education in sync with labor? 1

2 These reasons are somehow consistent with the 1999 GTS, which indicate that unemployed college graduates have the tendency to be choosy in seeking jobs with more than 40 percent having the following reasons for unemployment: 1) no job opening in field of specialization; 2) no interest in getting a job; 3) starting pay is low; and 4) no job opening within the vicinity of residence. Could it be because most of these college graduates are not breadwinners in their respective families, and hence, can manage to delay their entry into the workforce? 5 The 2013 edition of Trends in the Supply of Accounting graduates and the Demand for public Accounting Recruits identifies key trends in accounting enrolment, as well as graduation and hiring through the academic year. The results of the survey show very positive signs on both the supply and the demand side of the equation. Enrolments and degrees awarded are at all-time highs, displaying a strong interest in the accounting profession as a career choice. Further, public accounting firms also forecast that they will hire the same or more graduates in the following year, a very positive trend into the future. 6 The findings on a CHED Commissioned Research on The Supply and Demand for Higher Education Graduates in the Philippines (Davao Catchment Area) revealed that there was an overwhelming surplus of stocks of graduates from the Engineering cluster which was leading the race which in turn was closely followed by 5 6 Moore, Scott edition of Trends in the Supply of Accounting graduates and the Demand for public Accounting Recruits. USA TrendsReport.PDF 2

3 Business and Commerce and the Science and Mathematics clusters. As to the chances of employment, the Information Technology cluster signalled the highest chance of employment in the years to come as compared with the other cluster of disciplines. Graduates of the Business and Commerce and the Science and Mathematics clusters had the slimmest chance of employment. No CHED Commissioned Research for Northern Mindanao has yet been made as of this Research Period. The Philippine labor market situation points to the existence of supply-demand mismatches. This phenomenon leads to structural unemployment whereby there are plenty of available jobs that could not be filled up by our existing manpower. 7 The following are the Research Problems of this Study: 1. What is the magnitude of labor supply and demand of the new labor entrants in Cagayan de Oro City from Year ; 2. What is the labor supply and demand situationer of the country from Year ; 3. What is the projected labor supply and demand of the new labor entrants in Cagayan de Oro City over a five-year period given the past trends and data of demand figures from establishments and industries; 7 National Labor and Employment Summit,

4 4. How to bridge the gap between labor supply and demand of the new labor entrants in Cagayan de Oro City. This study is anchored on the structural unemployment phenomenon as shown in the Beveridge curve. The curve highlights the importance of looking at skills mismatches when analyzing labor markets, since skills mismatches prevent unemployed workers from taking the open jobs. 8 The balancing act of bridging labor supply and demand gap will require supply to be market-driven in order to feed the specific market requirements. At the same time, supply must be capable of driving the market in order to attract investors. Supply and demand equilibrium for the labor market may only be attained through real time delivery of quality workforce at the ideal quantity. The labor market information on supply and demand of new labor entrants is limited only to the job s fair conducted in Cagayan de Oro from Year Beggs, Jodi. The Beveridge Curve. Beveridge-Curve_2.htm#step-heading 4

5 This study made use of the trend analysis descriptive research design and purposive sampling. The Research environment is Cagayan de Oro City. It has four major private universities/colleges, one State University, and a number of foreign schools in the city with study programs. 9 The unit of analysis in this study are the new labor entrants (demand sector) and the establishments or industries (supply sector). The data source are from job fairs conducted in Year as registered in the Department of Labor and Employment. The mode of analysis and statistical instruments used are frequency, percentages, graphs and tabulated data were used in the analysis of data and autoregressive moving-average (ARMA) models and geometric growth rate model for the forecasting of supply and demand of new labor entrants