Yes, that’s what I thought too. There must be a misconception between the two here.

Intel produces hardware that I.T. workers use. So, indirectly Intel workers are part of the I.T. industry. IBM and google posted better than expected earnings. But microsoft’s earning’s disappoints. Microsoft has never cut jobs before until now. Intel just shuts down 2 plants in Malaysia and 1 in the Philippines. Last year, Google stock price was $600. Now it is $323.

Let’s just face it. Things are bad here and abroad. We don’t have to argue about the situation. Instead we should think of solutions to help ourselves in this crisis.

Technically, he has a point.
Though I’m sure, the writer used “IT” for being a punchier headline word as compared to its more descriptive cousin “electronics”.

I completely agree with you, Dexter.

+1. The title is depressing to read especially for IT-related employees. Title definitely not related to the article.

I agree with this feedback. IT and electronics job are different. IT involves knowledge services while the while you were pointing out in your article “Gov’t fears 60,000 IT job losses” is more on electronics manufacturing industry.

It is now the time to help the small business sector. Lay-offs in smaller businesses take more than one Board decision to close a whole Intel plant. Small to medium outfits tend to fight it out more than to mercilessly stop operation to cut huge losses. It is not uncommon for an auditing government employee to question why a businessman is continuing his operations when he is reporting negative income. Often times, it is the businessman’s only hope to try to fight it out for him and his employees until the end.

It is urgent that the government makes it easier for businessmen to start a venture and give them a fighting chance at the onset. As it is, the litany of licenses and permits from the Baranggay to the City Hall to the SEC/DTI, to BIR to SSS, to Philhealth to Pag-Ibig — all are obstacles too difficult for one simple business to grasp an even accomplish. Every step is a coughing station for money where the small-funded businessman feels that he is being punished for the mere intention to make a living.

Hurdling those requirements is just the start. Every transaction done (by any Filipino from the moment he wakes up in the morning) pays the Government VAT. Every year, the Baranggay and the BIR have to get paid. Every month, the BIR, SSS, Pag-Ibig, Philhealth have to get paid.

It is impossible for a simple non-educated entrepreneur operating within a Baranggay not to get into trouble without hiring an accountant and a runner. And getting into trouble creates opportunities for many a government employee on the ambush - another unreceipted and unreported business tax.

And yet, these small businesses do help in employing people. One employee should not be a mere insignificant dispensable statistic. There are families to feed and children to educate.

The Government should give small businesses one-stop windows in Baranggays where they transact everything. Baranggays have to WORK and report the transactions of their constituents to the city government and the different agencies. And if the small business prospers and is ready to expand to another area, the Baranggay should help in the progress and pass on the local hero to the City Government. The bottom line is that the redundancy in requirements and payments should be eliminated.

Businessmen should always be dealt with in good faith because of what they are capable of contributing to the economy. Exemptions for new businesses in having to deal with other Government branches should at least be given a moratorium. The Baranggay should now concentrate in helping the local economy to prosper with unthreatened bazaars and flea markets. If a citizen decides to grow plants and sell them on his porch, for Jose Rizal’s sake, let him do it without any permits! He may eventually hire one gardener with meager wages for three square meals.

As of now, after complying with all the requirements and paying all the licenses, permits and taxes, what does the businessman get in return? It is a human right to try to make an honest living, and people should not be burdened for trying to contribute in making himself and the community prosper.

These hard times call for an adjustment. It is time to take in the reality that small businesses are incapable in adhering to government agency requirements. Many cannot even pay their employees minimum wages. But they have to be allowed to strive through these hard times. They have to he helped through these hard times. Financially impossible inter-agency requirements should be temporarily lifted instead of giving the businessman the insecurity of having a noose of penalties, fines and a jail term on his neck.

A businessman without clout can hardly turn to anyone for help. His business is his own creation and he is often left out to the elements in the open to solve things on his own. And yet, on the aggregate, the money that goes around his little business is such an important contributor to the economy.

President Arroyo is not a businesswoman but she is an economist. With all due respect, she should listen to this representation and help fertilize new small businesses that will generate employment.

I share the same sentiment. Those are manufacturing jobs in electronic sectors , not IT jobs. IT jobs belong to the services sector mostly. There are IT professionals such as programmers, database administrators, network engineers, IT managers, helpdesk specialist, etc.

Does it really matter? Go and apply and you’ll know the difference if oturn out to be something else.

[...] this year. The title of the article (”RP fears 60,000 IT job losses”) confused some, to the chagrin of some readers, but the truth is very clear: along with those job losses, the electronics industry — the [...]

Yes, does it really matters whether it’s IT or not?
IT or not, 60,000 jobless Filipinos means 60,000 hungry families. This could be just the tip of the iceberg that’s going to sink our economy.

Are we talking about the company or the job specifications? If its the company then Intel is categorized under hardware manufacturing firm a big leg of ICT. But working in a hardware manufacturing firm does not mean you’re an ICT professional. Someone who works in the assembly line and checks the output of each chips if mounted correctly or not does not make you an ICT professional.

ICT or Information and Communication Technology is quite huge, but there is always one or more ICT staffs or professionals in every existing company.

I agree with Harry King, correct classification is not the issue here but the number of mouths that might get hungry sooner or later.

My only sentiments here is that if only GMA told all Filipinos that there is an ongoing financial crisis early on then the families should have been resorted to adjustment before the mass lay off. I am surprised that the government is acting too slow and too late now. Its been over a year now when the market was on its way down and the collapse in the wall st was just the highlight of it. The tumble and shakedown started in China years ago and there is always a chain reaction to every trading disaster. That,s a basic notion in economics. But realities was not relayed as early as they can. The government left the Filipinos blind for quite a while and now we are all surprised.

Good luck to all of us!

Well, before they can afford the fastfoods and classy malls. They couldnt die of hunger without. At least they could learn to go back to the fields and plant camote. Eat the basics from the soil. Only the lazy ones couldnt learn how to live. They shouldnt try to keep up with the Joneses.

yes, whether IT or Electronics, the loss of jobs will impact on the same environment of those with work. there is that link among us all. i don’t think there can ever be a situation that the government calls our being “insulated from” the global crisis. of all people and for an economist such as she is , the president knows that ours is just a delayed onset of consequences. yes, it matters not if the job losses are in IT or Electronics, or in fact any other sector. the fact is that we all live in the same territory / republic and a drop in one sector affects the other in some kind of global effect in a smaller local scenario. we are all told to expect more downturns in the coming months. start setting up your own SME and learn to manage micro startup fundings.

this is not a surprise for our country. this gigantic economic problem are also being experience by other country.\but surely this jobless thing will still be a chain for the next few years ,and on its extentan increase the no. of subsidies being burdened by the labor force will be experience.
but besides as am agricultural major , i expect that man filipinos would then revamp to our country’s nature[agricultural sector] being neglected as industrialization came