Thursday, March 5, 2009

Philippines on Financial Crisis

Many are saying including economic experts that there is much worse to happen when this financial crisis release its full force. Not just to US and Europe and in Asian countries as well, that includes the Philippines. According to experts, the crisis is due to a worldwide slowdown of money circulations. I am no expert here so let’s put it this way, people spend less and lesser which means low consumption of products. That will result to the manufacturer’s to produce less of their products. And less production mean less labor force, which then lead to the employee losing their job and much worst the company is shutting down.

With this crisis, big and known banks are cutting down on loans and giving credits. This means small business will be having a hard time or won’t even get the loan it needs if they are planning for expansion. Gig companies may be force to cut down on their spending to maintain their operations and pay their debts. And its effect to the labor force would be less or no new jobs would be created and worse would be employees and laborers will eventually lose their jobs.

Foreign land workers are also not spare of losing their jobs abroad as the global crisis are hitting the countries were they are employed. Recently, there are number of overseas workers who went back because their company is cutting on labor force or it eventually close down. The sad part is these workers were in debt just to get the needed requirements to get a job abroad. Much more affected are their families, which are their main reason why they want to work overseas and look for some good paying jobs to give their family a better future. But because of the crisis, they went back here, empty pocket, even in debt with less hope of better life for themselves and for the families as well.

Base on local statistics, unemployment level increased in 2006, and 2008 is expected to be worst year since the 1998 Asian economic crisis. Last year, 2008, the labor force grew by 81,000 but the number of unemployed rose by 249,000. This simply means that least jobs are done while more jobs are getting abolished or people getting layoff.

Many are thinking and worried on how long would this financial roller coaster will last and if we can survive. I think this depends on how dependent we are on other countries. OFW remittances for instance are one of our sources. But if an OFW contract got terminated because their company shut down, then there will be no remittance. The effect of this will also depend on the government’s plan on how they assure that their citizens will be getting the help they need in case we are hardly hit by the crisis. Let’s just hope that whatever plan they have it will benefit not just the few but the entire nation.

Posted by dezryl in 06:40:09 | Permalink | No Comments »