The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) now has a 3.3-percent unemployment rate, which is lower compared to the national average.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Wednesday said the region has a 96.7 percent employment rate, with 1.3 million people in the labor force.

Citing January 2024 data, Aldrin Bahit, regional statistical specialist at Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in the CAR, said that 64.43 percent of the region’s people are part of the labor force.

 “This places the unemployment rate in our region at 3.3 percent, lower than the national rate at 4.5 percent,” he said.

The services sector has surpassed agriculture as the top job generator, while the other job generator is the industry sector, he added.

Under the services sector, the top generators are the business process outsourcing (BPO), construction, and retail and wholesale, Emerito Narag, Department of Labor and Employment-Cordillera Administrative Region (DOLE-CAR) assistant regional director, said.

“Tourism is increasing, and more establishments are recovering from the pandemic,” he said.

Meanwhile, Narag said they barely receive labor-related complaints, and these are settled at the second or third conference between the parties.

“We do not wait for the 30 days to finish the problem,” he said.

Narag said DOLE continues to conduct “unannounced and unscheduled inspections in workplaces to see the condition of the workers and the employers’ compliance to the standards.”

He said they are also focusing on the booming construction industry which poses high risk to the safety of workers.

Safety violations have a fine of P40,000 while absence of personal protective equipment has a penalty of P20,000, which should be paid immediately, otherwise the fine increases daily.

“We cannot compromise health and safety,” Narag added.