Youth Unemployment and Entrepreneurship in the Philippines

Brian C. Gozun, De La Salle UniversityJohn Paolo R. Rivera, Asian Institute of Management

12th CBMS Philippines National Conference 01 March 2016

This study was funded by the Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKIEBS) and the Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Network under the project entitled Social Protection for the Informal Sector (SPIS) and Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship (YEE).

Youth & Unemployment

• Youth– United Nations: 15 to 24 years old– the Philippines: 15 to 30 years old

• We used the UN definition;– Youth without work but available

for and seeking employment

• PSA (LFS): almost 1.5M youths (18-24) are jobless and accounts for more than half of the jobless 2.9M in the country

Youth, Employment, Entrepreneurship

• Make the youth employable• Encourage the youth to be

entrepreneurial• Alleviate unemployment through

entrepreneurship

Research Questions:• What is the extent of

unemployment among the youth?• How do demographic

characteristics, level of education, and availment of in-aid programs influence an individual’s likelihood to acquire employment or to engage in entrepreneurial activities?

Entrepreneurship

• Identifying the entrepreneur– Who enterprises human action in

pursuit of the generation of value, through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new products, processes or markets (Ahmad & Hoffman, 2007)

• Driving factors of entrepreneurial propensity– Financial Capacity

– Education

Selected In-aid Programs

• Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC) Work Improvement in Small Enterprise (WISE)– Aimed to improve productivity through low-cost

improvements in working conditions in SMEs

• NWPC ISTIV Bayanihan Program– Training program and networking intervention for

BMBE

– Aids the growth of micro-enterprises through the enhancement of the entrepreneur’s way of managing the business

Selected In-aid Programs

• DILEEP Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program– KABUHAYAN

– Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged / Displaced Workers (TUPAD)

• Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES)– Aims to help poor but deserving students pursue

their education by providing income through employment during vacations.

Selected In-aid Programs

• Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES)– To mobilize the college and technical-vocational

graduates to become young entrepreneurs thereby generating income and jobs in the countryside

• Youth Education – Youth Employability (YE-YE)– To address the needs of the disadvantaged youth to

pursue an academic or technical-vocational, post secondary course towards becoming more employable and more productive members of the labor force.

Framework

• Method: Assess the likelihood that the youth can be employed (1) permanently; (2) seasonally; (3) temporary (as categorized by CBMS); or (4) engaged in entrepreneurial venture using multinomial logistic regression

• Dataset: CBMS data from different member schools of De La Salle Philippines

• Variables: demographic characteristics, educational attainment, in-aid programs

Career status of the Filipino youth

10.14

16.16

0.76

0.59

72.35

Permanent

Short-term, seasonal, casual

Worked on different jobs on day to day or week toweek

Entrepreneurial

Unidentified

Gender Distribution

50.63

49.37 Male

Female

Male Distribution

10.14

20.18

1.23

0.6867.77

Permanent

Short-term, seasonal, casual

Worked on different jobs on day to day or weekto week

Entrepreneurial

Unidentified

Female Distribution

10.14

12.04

0.28

0.48

77.06

Permanent

Short-term, seasonal, casual

Worked on different jobs on day to day or weekto week

Entrepreneurial

Unidentified

Age Distribution (by bracket)

Where is the youth?

What did the youth avail?

How much does the youth earns?

Empirical Findings

• Cash wages, age, and education:– reinforces employment and

entrepreneurship– more influential in employment (all

forms)

• Being married and having an OFW in the household reinforces likelihood of permanent employment

• In-aid programs related to employment increases likelihood of being permanently and seasonally employed

• In-aid programs related to entrepreneurship is statistically insignificant in increasing entrepreneurial tendencies

Conclusions and Recommendations

• Permanent employment has the highest mean cash wage

• Lack of takers in government programs to facilitate both employment and entrepreneurship

• Programs do not lead to permanent employment and entrepreneurship

• Education and age facilitate both employment and entrepreneurship

• Participation of youth in government initiatives

• Make sure the Accountancy, Business & Management Strand of Senior High School works

• TESDA and barangay officials must cater to those not in school

Youth Unemployment and Entrepreneurship in the Philippines

This study was funded by the Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKIEBS) and the Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Network under the project entitled Social Protection for the Informal Sector (SPIS) and Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship (YEE).