This paper looks deeper into the unemployment problem in the Philippines by finding out whether structural unemployment (mismatch between education and training outputs vis-à-vis employment requirements and utilization) really exists.  It also traces the origin of the problem and recommends measures to address it.

The paper concludes that there is indeed structural unemployment in the country as indicated by the continuous increase in the number of unemployed, the number of graduates from degree and technical-vocational courses, and the number of job vacancies being posted in the newspapers, radio programs, and in the Internet e.g., Phil-JobNet, jobsdb.com, jobstreet.com, etc.)

It identifies the following factors that contribute to the mismatch:

1.      Philippine education and training institutions are plague with problems such as over-subscription of certain courses, particularly business courses, and under-subscription in certain priority courses; low survival/graduation rate;  and low performance in licensure examinations;

2.      The tendency of the industrial sector to be selective in their hiring practices, which delimits the opportunities of most graduates in finding better careers that pay well;

3.      The prevalent practice among graduates to proceed to graduate school after college believing that no work is available anyway, which makes them a candidate for the pool of educated unemployed; and

4.      Underutilization of career guidance counseling,  resulting to students’ deprivation on information regarding skills, courses or specialization required by industries,  which consequently leads them to take courses considered as over-subscribed.

It also calls for the collaboration of educational and training institutions with the user or industries to explore the possibility of new programs; and rationalization of student financial assistance programs in favor of priority courses. 

The paper likewise advises education and training institutions to not only concentrate on making their students competent on their field of studies but also exert effort in harnessing their communications skills; and launch information campaigns on the use of career guidance programs in the secondary and tertiary levels.