More companies expect to hire additional employees in the second quarter of this year in line with the expansion of the economy, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in its latest survey.
Results of the Bangko Sentral’s quarterly business expectation survey showed the employment outlook index increased to 25.6 percent in the first quarter of 2015 from 24.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
“This is consistent with expectations of sustained growth of the economy. This indicates expectations of an overall increase in the number of new employees to be hired for the second quarter of the year,” Bangko Sentral said.
The survey, conducted from Jan. 5 to Feb. 10, 2015, covered 1,523 companies nationwide.
Among the sectors, companies in the construction are the most upbeat in their hiring intention, followed by those in the industry.
“Record-high indices were registered in the industry sector, particularly in electricity, gas and water and manufacturing sub-sectors,” Bangko Sentral said.
About one in every three respondent firms in the industry sector or 32.5 percent indicated expansion plans for the second quarter this year.
Among subsectors, agriculture, fishery and forestry indicated expansion plans while those in manufacturing were steady from a quarter ago.
Meanwhile, respondents said major business constraints in the first quarter were domestic competition (cited by 53.1 percent of respondents) and insufficient demand leading to low sales volume (27 percent).
The percentage of businesses that identified the two constraints continued to decline. “The easing of these business constraints indicate that business conditions are improving,” Bangko Sentral said.