Jobless Filipinos rose to 3.88M in August — PSA

The number of jobless Filipinos rose in August amid stricter lockdown to curb the spread of more transmissible Delta COVID-19 variant, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday.

The number of unemployed adults - ages 15 and above - stood at 3.88 million reflecting an unemployment rate of 8.1% last month.

This is higher than the 3.07 million jobless recorded in July, when the unemployment rate was 6.9%. 

“This result is expected, given the stricter quarantine imposed to curb the spread of the Delta variant,” the Duterte administration’s economic managers said in a joint statement.

The National Capital Region, the country’s economic center, was placed under the strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from August 6 to 20.

PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa said that when there is an ECQ, unemployment rate rises.

“‘Pag merong ECQ ang affected ay unemployment rate. Malaki ang impact ng ECQ dito, particularly in NCR,” Mapa said.

(If there is an ECQ, the unemployment rate is affected. ECQ has a huge impact on unemployment, particularly in NCR.)

The economic managers are Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, and Budget officer-in-charge Tina Rose Canda.

Employment rate, meanwhile, declined to 91.9% from 93.1% in July. This is equivalent to 44.23 million employed Filipinos out of 48.12 million individuals in the labor forces.

The number of employed adults, however, was higher compared to 41.7 million recorded in July.

This comes as the labor force participation rate — the number of adults who are actively looking for work — grew to 63.6% higher than the 59.8% in July.

“This time, we have greater labor force participation, especially among new graduates. There is seasonality in the increase in labor force participation,” Mapa said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Meanwhile, the underemployment rate — the proportion of employed persons wanting additional work — dropped to 14.7%, the third lowest recorded this year along with 12.3% in May and 14.2% in June.

Underemployed persons stood at 6.48 million, lower than 8.69 million reported in July.

In particular, visibly underemployed or those working less than 40 hours in a week and expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours, was estimated at 10.4% of the total employed persons.

On the other hand, invisibly underemployed or those working at least 40 hours in a week but still expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours, was estimated at 4.2% of the total employed individuals.

Reopen the economy

“We reiterate that the safe reopening of the economy, limiting restrictions to granular lockdowns, and accelerating the vaccination program are key to our recovery,” the economic managers said.

“Based on a seven-day moving average, the number of COVID-19 cases has gone down by around 15 percent since the peak on September 11, 2021. This trend will support the further reopening of the economy and the use of granular lockdowns to allow the majority to return to work and earn a living,” they said.

Duterte’s economic team said to better manage the health risks from COVID-19 and enable the people to earn a living, the government will continue to accelerate the vaccination program and focus on granular lockdowns, while preventing COVID-19 transmissions.

“These efforts will complement our recovery program and help our country bounce back from this crisis,” they said.

“We remain optimistic that our country will be able to recover to our pre-pandemic growth trajectory by the end of 2022 or early 2023 through the accelerated implementation of our recovery program and these pivotal reforms,” the economic managers added.  — RSJ/KBK, GMA News