PHL unemployment, underemployment decline in January

The number of jobless Filipinos declined in January this year compared to the same month last year, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed Thursday.

Results of the latest Labor Force Survey (LFS) revealed the unemployment rate in January was at 5.2 percent or 2.286 million, lower than the 5.3-percent or 2.320 million registered year-on-year.

This was the lowest unemployment rate recorded since 2009, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said in a separate statement.

According to the PSA, unemployed consists of persons in the labor force who are reported as without work; currently available for work; seeking work or not seeking work because of the belief that no work is available, or awaiting results of previous job application, or because of temporary illness or disability, bad weather or waiting for rehire or job recall.

Underemployment —the proportion of employed persons wanting additional work or better jobs than what they have — was at 15.6 percent or 6.448 million from 18 percent or 7.498 million year-on-year.

This was the lowest underemployment rate recorded for all surveys conducted in the January rounds since 2009, the NEDA said.

Employment rate, meanwhile, stood at 94.8 percent or 41.368 million out of 72.524 million adult Filipinos aged 15 years old in the labor force.

Employed persons, based on the PSA definition, refer to those in the labor force who are reported either as at work or with a job or business although not at work. Persons at work are those who did some work, even for an hour during the reference period.

Though the January 2019 employment rate is higher compared to 94.7-percent in January 2018, actual number of employed Filipinos this year is lower than 41.755 million in the same period last year.

This was mainly due to the 1.7 million employment loss in the agriculture sector, which overshadowed the combined 1.3 million additional employment in industry and services sectors, according to the NEDA.

“The prevalence of low-productivity jobs in the agriculture sector remains a challenge. Sustainable solutions such as shifting rice farmers to high-value crops, promoting crop diversification, accelerating development of local infrastructure, and training for farmers on technological advances are critical to raising productivity in agriculture,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.

The continued decline in agricultural employment is also largely attributed to rising cost of inputs amidst low profit, limited access to credit, poor infrastructure, and vulnerability to environmental risks, the NEDA said.

According to Pernia, “The overall improvements in the proportion of remunerative work, and full-time employment, as well as the decline in underemployment and vulnerable employment, indicate that the quality of work in the country is continuously progressing."

He added that in order to further improve labor market outcomes and meet the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) employment targets, the government should remain committed to providing policies and programs that are conducive to creating more and better employment. These include reducing the cost of doing business as well as more aggressive reductions in foreign investment restrictions.

The January 2019 LFS registered a labor force participation rate of  60.2 percent given the population 15 years old and over of 72.95 million.

The LFPR in January 2018 was 62.2 percent. The labor force population consists of the employed and the unemployed persons 15 years old and over.

The LFS is a nationwide quarterly survey of households to gather data on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the population, and provide statistics on trends of employment, unemployment, and underemployment in the country. —LDF, GMA News