Number of unemployed Pinoys rose by 1.6M in January — PSA

The number or unemployed Filipinos rose by 1.6 million in January this year, results of the latest Labor Force Survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority showed Tuesday.

At a virtual press conference, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said the unemployment rate in the first month of 2021 stood at 8.7% or four million jobless adults - ages 15 and above.

The January unemployment rate is the lowest unemployment rate since April 2020, when it jacked up to a record-high of 17.3% at the height of strict lockdowns to contain COVID-19’s spread.

This is 1.6 million higher than the 2.4 million unemployed individuals in January 2020 and slightly higher compared to the October 2020 Labor Force Survey which saw the number of jobless adults at 3.8 million.

By percentage, however, January’s unemployment rate is the same as October 2020’s 8.7%.

This, as the labor force participation rate - the number of adults who are actively looking for work - rose to 60.5% or 45.2 million in January from 58.7% or 43.6 million in October 2020.

“While the unemployment rate remains unchanged at 8.7%, more opportunities from the easing of restrictions meant that more people are rejoining the labor force,” the economic managers said in a joint statement.

The economic managers are the secretaries of Finance, Budget and Management, and Socioeconomic Planning.

“Between October 2020 and January 2021, some 1.4 million jobs were restored as the labor force participation rate, or the proportion of the working age population that is either working or actively looking for work, increased from 58.7% to 60.5% over that three-month period,” the economic managers said.

Employment rate

Meanwhile, employment rate stayed at 91.3% in January equivalent to 41.2 million employed persons, compared to 91.3% in October last year. In terms of number of individuals, this is slightly higher than the 39.8 million employed adults in October.

This means that 41.2 million were employed out of the 45.2 million Filipino adults in the labor force in January.

Year-on-year, employment rate in the first month of the year is lower than the 94.7% rate recorded in January 2020 at 42.5 million employed individuals.

“As we further reopen the economy, we continue to see signs of recovery. The results of the January labor force survey (LFS) are promising as it tells us that we are on track to getting back most of the jobs we have lost due to COVID-19 and the quarantines,” the economic managers said.

Underemployed persons or those who are employed but expressed desire to have additional work hours rose to 6.6 million or 16% fro 5.7% or 14.4% in October 2020. This is also higher than the 14.8% unemployment rate in January 2020 at 6.3 million.

The PSA chief noted that the average weekly hours of work of an employed person decreased in January 2021 at 39.3 hours from an average of 41.3 hours in January 2020.

This is also lower than the average weekly hours of work in October 2020 at 40.8 hours.

On the other hand, the top three sub-sectors that bounced back in terms of employment level from October 2020 to January 2021 were as follows: arts, entertainment, and recreation under the services sector at 25.7%; mining and quarrying under the industry sector at 14.1%; and real estate activities at11.3%.

The fishing and aquaculture sub-sector registered the lowest drop in employment by -16.1% from October 2020 to January 2021.

“While the data show that across sectors, we are gradually getting back the jobs we lost due to the pandemic, the smaller progress in the past quarter suggests that we still need to address the remaining restrictions before the economy can get closer to normal,” the economic managers said.

The Duterte’s economic team said this can be done through the following:

• the gradual and safe relaxation of community quarantine and only using localized quarantine when needed
• the expansion of the age group allowed to go out, subject to health safeguards, to increase consumer demand
• the further opening of public transportation, including supporting active transport, such as more protected bicycle lanes.

“All these will provide Filipinos with more job opportunities, as well as safer and more convenient options to go to work,” the economic managers said. — RSJ, GMA News