BAGUIO CITY – The employment rate remains high in the Cordillera region, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The PSA said the region has an employment rate of 96.7 percent as of January 2024, higher than the national employment rate of 95.5 percent.
On the other hand, the unemployment rate was recorded at 3.3 percent, lower than the national unemployment rate of 4.5 percent.
The region has a 1.3 million working age population with 64.43 percent belonging to the labor force.
Most of them are found in the service, agriculture, and industry sector.
Many employers in the region need workers in Business Process Outsourcing, construction, and tourism and hospitality industries.
Employees in the agriculture industry and services sectors remain in demand in the region.
The Department of Labor and Employment said the skills mismatch in the labor force in the Cordillera has been resolved due to their career guidance program together with the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education among students.
The implementation of the Labor Employment Plan 2023-2028 which mandates the upskilling and re-skilling of jobseekers also helped remedy the problem, the DOLE said.
DOLE received only a few labor-related complaints and regularly conducts workplace inspections to see the condition of employees and employers' compliance with labor standards.
The agency also mandates the regular training of health and safety officers of construction sites to ensure the safety and health of workers.