Philippines – Asian Development Bank lends Philippines $300 million to help young jobseekers

By memberservices@staffingindustry.com (Danny Romero)

The Asian Development Bank approved a USD 300 million loan to help Filipino youth find gainful employment.

The loan is part of the government’s job creation plan under President Rodrigo Duterte.

“The Philippines has a young population with an average age of 25 years,” Kelly Bird, Director for Public Management, Financial Sector, and Trade Division of ADB’s Southeast Asia Department, said. “Therefore, creating wage jobs for youth is vital to reducing poverty and income inequality.”

According to data from World Bank, youth unemployment (15-24) in the Philippines for 2016 stood at 13.9%.

The government stated that it has identified several constraints in the Filipino youth’s transition to work after school, including inadequate and underfunded government employment services and weaknesses in post-high school training. The government has enacted a number of laws and programs to provide skills training and internships to Filipino youth, including JobStart Philippines which provides training to out-of-school youth to raise their chances of productive employment.

Source:: Philippines – Asian Development Bank lends Philippines $300 million to help young jobseekers