Philippine Development Report : Creating More and Better Jobs

Accelerating inclusive growth - the type
that creates more and better jobs and reduces poverty - is a
key challenge for the Philippines. Instead of rising
agricultural productivity paving the way for the development
of a vibrant labor-intensive manufacturing sector and
subsequently of a high-skill services sector, the converse
has taken place in the Philippines. Agricultural
productivity has remained depressed, manufacturing has
failed to grow sustainably, and a low-productivity,
low-skill services sector has emerged as the dominant
feature of the economy. Lack of competition in key sectors,
insecurity of property rights, complex regulations, and
severe underinvestment by the government and the private
sector have led to this growth pattern, which is not the
norm in the East Asia region. This report analyzes the
policy distortions that led to the country's weak
employment record, highlights the unique window of
opportunity where government, business, labor, and civil
society can work together and agree on an agenda on job
creation, and outlines a number of recommendations which the
reform coalition can consider to put the country on an
irreversible path of inclusive growth and address the jobs challenge.