2632075-60007500center-63500000
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS
FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS
A Study Based on the Sociological Perspective of Unemployment in the National Capital Region among 2013 to 2018 College Graduates
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in Sociology 101
Submitted To:
Assoc. Prof. Josephine A. Placido, MA
Submitted By:
DAVID, Christine
DE JESUS, Chester
DERECHO, BeatrizzDOMINGO, Recel
IMPIG, Paul
P-SCL1-2
July 18, 2018
CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………….3
A. Background of the Study………………………………………………….3
B. Objectives of the Study……………………………………………………5
C. Scope and Limitation………………………………………………………5
II. PROBLEM OF THE STUDY……………………………………………………….6
III. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE…………………………………………..7
IV. DATA PRESENTATION………………………………………………………….11
V. ANALYSIS OF DATA ……………………………………………………………..22
VI. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………25
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Unemployment, as defined in the National Statistical Coordination Board or NSCB Resolution No. 15, consists of persons 15 years of age and older who are: (1) of without work but currently available for work and looking for a job; or (2) of without work and currently looking for work but not looking for a job due to exhaustion (they believe there are no longer work available), waiting for results of their previous job application, disability or temporary illness, bad weather, and waiting to be rehired. The issue of unemployment in the Philippines is a great factor in the growth of the economy. During the past decade, there have been fluctuation recorded in the unemployment rate in the whole country. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA, the unemployment rate of 7.2% in 2011 dropped to 7.0% in 2012 and rose to 7.3% in 2013. This year, the unemployment dropped to 5.3% with the National Capital Region containing the highest unemployment rate of 7.8%. While there is a decline of the unemployment rate compared to the last decades, the present rate of 5.3% is still far behind the target of 4% by 2022 under the current administration. With this issue, proponents are convinced to conduct a study underlying the causes of unemployment to provide a new perspective on determining the root causes of unemployment. Guided by the Conflict Theory, the present study aims to determine the main factor of the unemployment graduates in the National Capital Region among 2013 to 2018 college graduates. The current study argues that there is an existing mismatch and conflict of interest between the availability of jobs and the expertise and skills of the applicant.

The National Capital Region or NCR is known as the country’s global power city and is the center of culture, economy, education and government. NCR consists of 16 cities – Manila City, Quezon City, Caloocan City, Pasay City, Las Pinas City, Makati City, Malabon City, Mandaluyong City, Marikina City, Muntinlupa City, Navotas City, Paranaque City, Pasig City, San Juan City, Taguig City, Valenzuela City – and one municipality, Pateros.  Last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority released its annual Labor Force Survey results which showed that the unemployment rate in NCR alone, increased to 8.5% compared to the 6.9% of the previous year. The numbers are much lower than the LFS results that was released last January 2008 which showed that the unemployment rate in NCR reached 12.5%. The employment rate of NCR in the year 2008 was at 87.2% which increased to 91.5% by the end of 2017 as reported by the PSA. However, the employment growth is not enough to fully abolish our country’s unemployment problem.  Despite the decrease in percentage, we cannot deny the fact that unemployment is still a major problem especially to the fresh graduates.
The purpose of conducting this research study is to determine the current factors affecting the unemployment rate in NCR among fresh graduates and to examine the problem to make a conclusion and to give a recommendation that can be a possible solution concerning the unemployment rate in NCR. The focus of this study are graduates between 2013 and 2018 who resides in NCR to find out if they belong to the unemployed sector and if they do, what are the possible factors that lead to it – if not, there is a great probability that those who belong to the unemployed sector are either from outside NCR or older than the subjects of this study.
B. Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this research are:
To be able to analyze the current situation of the fresh graduates upon graduation
To be able to see if there is a conflict between the degree of the graduate and the jobs available for work
To be able to provide possible information that would be important in solving issues in the unemployment in NCR
C. Scope and Limitation
This research only focuses with graduates from the year 2013 to 2018 as its main determinants of unemployment in the National Capital Region. There is no specific person needed to answer the questionnaire but there is a bracket of 10 to 50 respondents only.

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PROBLEM OF THE STUDY
The study seeks to determine the sociological perspective on the unemployment in the National Capital Region among 2013 to 2018 college graduates. The following specific questions will be answered:
1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of the following:
1.1 Age
1.2 Gender
1.3 Civil Status
1.4 City of Residence
1.5 Educational Attainment
1.6 Year of Graduation
2. What are the sociological factors that affect unemployment?
3. To what extent does a person’s educational attainment determine his/her employability?
4. Is there a difference in the sociological perspective of unemployed people in the National Capital Region among the following:
4.1 Batch 2013
4.2 Batch 2014
4.3 Batch 2015
4.4 Batch 2016
4.5 Batch 2017
4.6 Batch 2018
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In comparison with the other countries in the world, Philippines remain to have a high relative unemployment rate. According to the findings of Brooks (2001), the unemployment rate in the Philippines has fluctuated in the range of 7-14 percent over the past twenty years. As the employment rate of the country grows, its growth has not been found to be sufficient to lower the unemployment rate given the high population growth and a rise in labor force participation. An important feature of the labor market is the large number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Partly in response to the lack of job opportunities at home, the number of workers formally deployed overseas has increased substantially.

Every year, the country produces a large number of fresh graduates and it is said to be that the fresh graduates are the most number of unemployed with about 400,000 added to the labor force each year. But a significant ratio of them are also workers who were retrenched from their jobs or employees who were not able to renew their contracts. Studies reveal that 22 percent of the unemployed rate are people who have attended college while 19 percent have graduated from college. Others might have been spending too much of their time studying in college before entering the labor market, thus, contributing to the lower participation rate in the labor force.

Based on the article of Jimeno, the quality of graduates has also steadily declined such that professions requiring qualifying examinations such as medicine, accountancy, engineering, library science, and others suffer high failing rates. As a result of it, there is now a greater number of the unemployed who were unable to take on available jobs because their jobs were not connected with what they have learned. It is also stated in her article that the real cause of massive unemployment rate in the Philippines is the government. The government has failed to create the needed climate to attract investors and, on its own, to create jobs. One factor is that there may be the availability of low quality jobs.

Another reason of having high unemployment rate in the Philippines is that job creation has struggled to keep pace with an ever-expanding population; the number of people entering the job market has been greater than the number of jobs created. The mere participation of people in the labor force remains relatively low. Only about 65 percent of the population aged 15 and above is looking for work, compared to the other Asian countries near Philippines: 78 percent in Vietnam, 72 percent in Thailand, and 68 percent in Indonesia (Salvosa, 2015).

According to Rappler (2017) and the labor department, more than 143,000 jobs here and abroad will be available. But the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that there were 145,000 Filipinos unemployed in 2017 and there are still more Filipino men that do not have jobs than women. Amounting to 1.4 million of the unemployed are males while 783,000 are females; most unemployed Filipinos are between ages 15 to 24 and of the unemployed, 665,000 were Junior High School finishers and followed by college graduates at 449,000. Moreover, President Rodrigo Duterte promised to open more job opportunities to the Filipinos and end contractualization. Many labor groups are waiting for the President to sign the Executive Order that would end labor contracting practices by the different companies and establishments in the country.

In a country with a population of more than 100 million, having an almost 10 million people without jobs is a huge problem. In a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) shows 21.4 percent of the population declared themselves unemployed (Flores, 2016). These Filipinos defined unemployment in two ways, the one without jobs and the one looking for a job. Despite that the employment scene in the country is growing fast thanks to its booming economy, many of us Filipinos are still jobless. Employment growth in the last 50 years were mainly on industrial, agricultural and service sectors. However, as the 21st century ushers in, the employment growth could not keep in pace with the rapid population growth in the country. The country’s uneven employment market led to millions of Filipinos seeking better paying work abroad. As the year 2000 enters, overseas Filipinos reached the 2.9 million mark which is 9 percent of the labor force (Brooks, 2002). In the present time, one out of ten Filipinos go abroad to work, sending in billions of dollars to power the Philippine economy, which is mainly driven by consumption, but it did little to promote and reduce the unemployment situation (Salvosa, 2015). The Philippines has a history of sending its citizens to work or as experts called it as a labor exporting country. Whereas about 2,500 Filipinos leave the country on a daily basis to provide their family a better life (Dwyer, 2015).
In his column on the Manila Times, Dr. Ej Lopez (2014) pointed out that the GDP growth is merely one side of the coin. Citing Professor the Professor now the Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno that the impressive GDP growth is an encouraging sign for the country, the components of this GDP growth should have grown as well. Otherwise, this GDP growth is all nonsense. The unemployment rate remains high as people couldn’t find jobs that is suitable for their expertise. This goes to show that the statistics is different from the reality of the employment situation in the country.

Another issue facing the employment scene is the issue of Endo. Although companies are committed to end endo, it is easier said than done. Some employers warned that ending the endo may increase the number of unemployed people further deepening the problem. According to Jp Villanueva (2016), there is frictional unemployment, this occurs when people are in between jobs, just graduated and waiting to be employed. This happens in the short term generally. While Structural Unemployment occurs where there is no endo however the employers will hire less people leaving the unemployed with no options. According to him, ending the endo is an issue that is needed to be concerned since there are so many people involved in it. Just ending it in one go will create a whole nee problem as when employers went bust and had to lay off workers, the unemployment situation will grow. So, the government, the workers and the employers need to talk about this and advocate their interests without hurting another and the general state of unemployment in the Philippines.

DATA PRESENTATION
Presented below are the results of the survey the researchers have conducted. Prior to the survey process, the purpose and the objectives of the study were relayed to the respondents.
For a clearer presentation or visualization of the survey, the results are shown in graphs.

FIG. 1
This table shows the age bracket of the 50 respondents. The graph clearly shows that majority of the respondents are aged 20 to 23 while the minority are older than the said age brackets and very few of which are younger than 20.

FIG. 2
From Fig. 2, the dominance of the male respondents in the study is evident with 66%.

FIG. 3
The table above shows the residence of the respondents. Based from fig. 3, it is obvious how most of the respondents resides in Quezon City followed by Marikina City and Manila City as well as Paranaque City. However, it is agreeable that a portion presents that a few of the respondents resides outside National Capital Region.

FIG. 4
The figure above shows the highest educational attainment of the respondents. It shows that majority or 94% of the respondents are Bachelors Degree holders while the other 6% are respondents whose highest educational attainment is Technical/Vocational, Post Graduate or Secondary/High School.

FIG. 5
In connection to Fig. 4, Fig. 5 shows the year the respondents graduated. A number of the respondents, as evident in the graph, are graduates of 2018.

FIG. 6
Fig. 6 shows the percentage of the work experience of the respondents, this shows how many among the respondents have work experience and how many does not have. As seen in the graph, 70% of the respondents does not have any work experience and only 30% has.

FIG. 7
In relation to Fig. 6, the table above shows how many among the respondents are currently working and how many are not. It is evident that there is a distinct difference among those who are currently working (26%) and those who are still unemployed (74%).

FIG. 8
The figure above shows us the percentage the respondents who are currently working that has their job aligned with their degree. And as we can see, a majority or 75% of those with jobs believe that their work is related with their degree and only 25% says otherwise.

FIG. 9
In relation again to Fig. 7, the table above shows where is the work location among the employed respondents. As evident from Fig. 9, it is obvious that many of the employed respondents work in Makati City, followed by a few that resides outside the National Capital Region, Mandaluyong City, Paranaque City and Quezon City.

FIG. 10
Lastly, the figure above shows the percentage of those currently seeking, and those who are not. As seen in the chart, 62% of the respondents are not seeking while only 38% says they are currently seeking for a job.
Aside from the figures above, the respondents were also asked the following questions that required their personal answers or in-sights followed by the results that the researchers were able to gather:
(1) Current job of those employed, among the 26% that are employed (Fig. 7), are the following:
Assistant at the Department of Tourism
Accounting Assistant
Call Center Agent
Medical Technologist
Aircraft Mechanic
Paralegal Assistant
Marketing Specialist
Barista
MIS Specialist
Assists in Family Business
(2) Former job of those who were employed before or with working experience. Below are the results:
Clerk
Private Nurse
Medical Technologist
Software Engineer
Human Resource Admin Assistant
Audit Associate
Technical Support Representative
Fast Food Crew
Online English Tutor
(3) In relation to the above question, we also asked why they left their former jobs, and below are the results:
Low salary
Looking for a better job
Not related to their degree
Too far from residence
Contractual
Had to migrate
Had to study for certification exams
Had to focus with undergraduate studies
(4) We asked as to why the 62% of our respondents are not seeking for a job and was able to collect the following results:
Currently Satisfied with their job
Decided to pursue a Master’s Degree
Chose to rest for a while
Underqualified
Cannot find a job related to their degree
Preparing for Medical / Law School
(5) We asked those who are currently seeking for a job what kind of work they are looking for are seeking for a job more related to the degree they have. A few answered a job in call center and homebased job.

Aside from the stated questions above, we also asked additional questions such as how long they have been unemployed, how they keep themselves busy if they are currently unemployed and not seeking for a job and lastly we asked for their college degree for us to see if there is a mismatch of degree and job as well as if there is a conflict of interest with the job and their degree which we think are the current factors of unemployment among graduates of today.

Among those who are unemployed, only a few of them have been unemployed for more than a year while majority of them are unemployed between 1 to 8 months. They keep themselves busy by helping with the house chores, pursuing a masteral degree, reviewing for the board or bar exams and a majority says that the kept themselves busy through attending medical / law school. Below is the list of the degree of our respondents:
BS Tourisim (2)
Bs Accountancy (2)
AB Communication Arts (3)
BS Nursing (3)
BS Medical Technology (2)
Aircraft Mechanic
BSBA Internal Auditing (3)
AB Legal Management (3)
BS Marketing (2)
BS Economics (3)
BS Customs Administration
BS Biochemistry (6)
Fashion Designing
BS IT (3)
AB Foreign Service
AB Political Science
BFA Advertising Arts
BS Management Accounting (2)
BS Applied Physics
BS Accounting Finance
BS Entrepreneurship
BSBA International Business
BFA Design
ANALYSIS OF DATA
The study was conducted for determining the possible factors that are affecting the rate of unemployment in the National Capital Region among 2013 to 2018 graduates. An online questionnaire was used for gathering the information need for the research. The said questionnaire serves as the instrument in gathering the necessary data that were answered by 50 random respondents who graduated between the years 2013 to 2018. From the results stated earlier the researchers were able to come up with the following analysis:
1. Demographic profile of the respondents:
1.1 Age
Out of 50 respondents, 36 of which are aged between 18 to 21 years old while 14 of which are aged between 22 to 33 years old.

1.2 Gender
Out of 50 respondents, 66% of which are male, 32% are female an 2% refused to label their gender
1.3 Civil Status
All our respondents are single.

1.4 City of Residence
Among 50 respondents, 10 resides in Quezon City; 8 in Marikina City; 6 in Paranaque City and Manila City; 3 in Las Pinas City; 2 in Caloocan City, Makati City, Malabon City, Taguig City, and Valenzuela City; 1 in Mandaluyong City; and 5 of which resides outside NCR.

1.5 Educational Attainment
94% of our 50 respondents are Bachelors Degree holder; 2% are Post Graduates, High School Graduates or Vocational Graduates.

1.6 Year of Graduation
From the 50 respondents, 25 are graduates of 2018; 14 are graduates of 2017; 6 graduated in 2016; 3 in 2015; and 2 graduated in 2013
2. Sociological factors that affect unemployment
The sociological factors that affect unemployment that the researchers perceived based from the conducted study are (1) Willingness to work, (2) Changes in interest, and (3) Discriminating factors – age, social status and degree.

3. Extent of a person’s educational attainment in his/her employability
Based from the conducted survey, we can see that majority of our graduates were able to find a job suitable to their degree; however, there were still a few who, despite their degree, were not able to find a job appropriate for their degree.

The sociological theory that inspired the study is called The Conflict Theory which states that the society is in a state of perpetual conflict because of competition for limited resources. The theory is a perspective which sees the community as a set of groups with varied interests that conflict with each other. The researchers believe that the unemployment status that occurs specifically in the National Capital Region and among graduates of the years 2013 to 2018, falls under the said theory.
As seen in the results of the conducted survey, among graduates of 2013 to 2018, the conflict theory is still evident but is no longer a huge factor when it come to the current unemployment status of the graduates. The result of the study shows that despite the mismatch of some degree to work status of the graduates, they quit the said jobs to pursue or look for a something more suitable with their degree. The theory states that there is a conflict due to lack or limited resources which can be seen from the results gathered, however, the researchers believe it is not that relevant to 2013 to 2018 graduates since looking at the outcome of the study, a majority of the respondents were able to find a keep a job that is suitable to their degree. From the results of the study, it is evident that graduates of the current generation are experiencing unemployment due to different factors such as (1) sudden interest change, (2) lack of job related to their expertise and (3) pursuing of a higher degree.

REFERENCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY 2012 Annual Labor and Employment. (2013). Retrieved July 15, 2018, from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/2012-annual-labor-and-employment-status-annual-estimates-july-2012
2013 Annual Labor and Employment Status (Annual Estimates for 2013). (2013). Retrieved July 15, 2018, from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/2012-annual-labor-and-employment-status-annual-estimates-2013
Brooks, R. (2002). Why is Unemployment High in the Philippines? Retrieved July 14, 2018, from https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/30/Why-is-Unemployment-High-in-the-Philippines-15591
Employment Rate in January 2018 is Estimated at 94.7 Percent. (2018). Retrieved July 15, 2018, from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/employment-rate-january-2018-estimated-947-percent
Employment Situation in April 2011. (2012). Retrieved 2018, from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/employment-situation-april-2011
Employment Situation in January 2008. (2018, July 15). Retrieved from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/employment-situation-january-2008
Jimeno, R. V. (2016, February 22). Unemployment and its causes. Retrieved July 12, 2018, from Manila Standard: http://manilastandard.net/opinion/columns/out-of-the-box-by-rita-linda-v-jimeno/199911/unemployment-and-its-causes.html
Lopez, M. (2016). Gov’t Targets 4% Unemployment Rate by 2022. Retrieved July 15, 2018, from B World Online: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=gov&8217t-targets-4%25-unemployment-rate-by-2022&id=132598
Rey, A. (2018, April 30). Unemployment rises under Duterte’s watch. Retrieved July 10, 2018, from Rappler: https://www.rappler.com/nation/201462-duterte-unemployment-labor-day-2018
Salvosa, F. (2015, September 1). Philippines struggles with unemployment despite economic growth. Retrieved July 12, 2018, from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/01/unemployment-in-philippines-an-issue-despite-rapid-economic-growth.html
Urrutia, J., Tampis, R. L., ; ; Atienza, J. (2017). An Analysis on the Unemployment Rate in the Philippines: A Time Series Data Approach. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2-13.

Villanueva, J. (2016). Ending “Endo” and Unemployment Problems. Retrieved July 13, 2018, from Sun Star: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/89948/Ending-Endo-and-Unemployment-problems

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY 2012 Annual Labor and Employment. (2013). Retrieved July 15, 2018, from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/2012-annual-labor-and-employment-status-annual-estimates-july-2012
2013 Annual Labor and Employment Status (Annual Estimates for 2013). (2013). Retrieved July 15, 2018, from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/2012-annual-labor-and-employment-status-annual-estimates-2013
Brooks, R. (2002). Why is Unemployment High in the Philippines? Retrieved July 14, 2018, from https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/30/Why-is-Unemployment-High-in-the-Philippines-15591
Employment Rate in January 2018 is Estimated at 94.7 Percent. (2018). Retrieved July 15, 2018, from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/employment-rate-january-2018-estimated-947-percent
Employment Situation in April 2011. (2012). Retrieved 2018, from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/employment-situation-april-2011
Employment Situation in January 2008. (2018, July 15). Retrieved from Philippine Statistics Authority: http://psa.gov.ph/content/employment-situation-january-2008
Jimeno, R. V. (2016, February 22). Unemployment and its causes. Retrieved July 12, 2018, from Manila Standard: http://manilastandard.net/opinion/columns/out-of-the-box-by-rita-linda-v-jimeno/199911/unemployment-and-its-causes.html
Lopez, M. (2016). Gov’t Targets 4% Unemployment Rate by 2022. Retrieved July 15, 2018, from B World Online: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=gov&8217t-targets-4%25-unemployment-rate-by-2022&id=132598
Rey, A. (2018, April 30). Unemployment rises under Duterte’s watch. Retrieved July 10, 2018, from Rappler: https://www.rappler.com/nation/201462-duterte-unemployment-labor-day-2018
Salvosa, F. (2015, September 1). Philippines struggles with unemployment despite economic growth. Retrieved July 12, 2018, from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/01/unemployment-in-philippines-an-issue-despite-rapid-economic-growth.html
Urrutia, J., Tampis, R. L., ; ; Atienza, J. (2017). An Analysis on the Unemployment Rate in the Philippines: A Time Series Data Approach. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2-13.

Villanueva, J. (2016). Ending “Endo” and Unemployment Problems. Retrieved July 13, 2018, from Sun Star: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/89948/Ending-Endo-and-Unemployment-problems