Agriculture industry remains the key employment generator in Davao Region.

This was revealed in the 2013 Project JobsFit: DOLE 2020 Vision of the Department of Labor and Employment in Davao Region.

Project JobsFit (PJF)  is a labor market signalling study that the DOLE initiated in 2009 as part of the its firm resolve to adopt coherent and innovative strategies towards efficient employment facilitation.

“The 2013 PJF update is the insightful report enumerating the summary of in-demand and hard-to-fill jobs. It has also comprehensively documented the recommendations identified by the various industries to respond to the prevailing skill mismatch underlying the issues of unemployment and underemployment,” said Regional Director Joffrey Suyao said.

He said Davao region is the first across regional office in the country to update its industry-labor skills matching projecting employment from 2010 – 2016.

The 2013 update was a product of the 13 focused-group discussions of the regional “captains of the industry” from March to April in 2013. The industry partners identified in-demand and the hard-to-fill jobs and provided recommendations to resolve the issue on skills mismatch.

The consultation with the academe and the LGU-based PESO became a venue from the supplier side to describe their efforts of aligning their curriculum to the skills needed in the industry. The discussions brought out issues on how the industry side could further strengthen the industry-related experiences of the students by means of academe-industry linkage for an improved On-the-Job Training programs.

The report noted that there about 1.86 million jobs in the labor market in 2013. This figure is projected to increase to 1.97 million in 2016, showing a 5.91 percent annual growth rate.

“The economy and employment opportunities in Davao region remains on an increasing track in the next three years and we are committed to support our labor to maintain and strengthen a peaceful and harmonious industrial relations climate,” Suyao said.

“With the update of Project JobsFit we also ensure that to address job-skills mismatch,” he added.

In the 2013-2016 projection update, there were 16 major industries in Davao region that leads in employment generation.

Agricultures posted about  670,000 jobs for 2013 projected to reach 675,350 jobs in 2016 based on data from Regional and Social Economic Trends for Davao Region by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

This is followed by the wholesale and retail industry offering 367,650 in 2013 seen to increase by 9.45 percent in 2016 reaching as much as 402,280 jobs. Transportation and communication is seen to offer about 141,780 jobs until 2016; manufacturing with 126,680 jobs and construction with 91,525 jobs.

The other employment generators for the region were the industries of mining, manufacturing, electricity, gas and water, hotel and restaurant, financial intermediation, real estate and renting, public administration, education, health and social work, social and personal activities and household employment.

The 16 industries were based in the 2009 study. In 2013, however, PJF has also noted increasing employment in new industries of Cyber Services and the Creative Industry which included IT and Business Process Outsourcing.