The employment outlook for the second quarter remains bright as more firms expressed their intention to hire more workers, results of the latest Business Expectations Survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.
The survey showed the employment outlook index for the next quarter increased to 29.7 percent from 21.8 percent in the last quarter’s survey.
“This indicates that the number of firms with hiring intentions increased relative to a quarter ago,” said the Bangko Sentral.
But the percentage of businesses with expansion plans in the industry sector for the second quarter of 2019 declined to 33.2 percent from 36 percent in the previous quarter.
Earlier, the survey said the outlook of businesses on the economy improved in the first quarter this year compared twith the last quarter of 2018 as they expect more business activities during the start of the campaign period for the forthcoming midterm elections.
The businesses’ overall confidence index rose to 35.2 percent from 27.2 percent for fourth quarter of 2018, after declining for four consecutive quarters.