Number of jobless Filipinos down to 2.76M in April —PSA

Joblessness rate in the Philippines eased further in April this year, bringing the unemployment rate down to a fresh low since the peak of the COVID-19 lockdowns, according to results of the latest Labor Force Survey (LFS).

At a virtual press briefing, PSA chief and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said the April 2022 LFS recorded that unemployed adults aged 15 and above stood at 2.76 million, lower than the 4.14 million jobless in April 2021 and 2.87 million unemployed in March this year.

The number of jobless in April reflects an unemployment rate of 5.7%, down from 5.8% in March.

April’s unemployment rate is the lowest since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in April 2020, when the all-time high unemployment rate of 17.6% or 7.3 million jobless was recorded. 

It also moved nearer to the pre-pandemic January 2020 level of 5.3% unemployment rate.

Employment, labor force participation

Meanwhile, the number of employed individuals grew to 45.63 million from 43.27 in April 2021, translating to an employment rate of 94.3%, which is higher than April 2021’s 91.3%.

Compared to March, however, April’s employment figures resulted in a net employment loss of around 1.3 million from 46.98 million.

This is due to fewer Filipinos who joined the labor force as reflected in the decline in the labor force participation rate — the percentage of individuals who are actively looking for work in the population — to 63.4% in April from 65.4% in March, which was the highest since the start of the pandemic.

In terms of magnitude, the number of labor force participants stood at 48.39 million from 49.85 million in March.

Outgoing Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua attributed the lower labor force participation to “supply chain disruptions brought about by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and seasonal factors in agriculture, among others.”

“Higher oil prices and seasonal factors have impacted workers in the transport and agriculture sectors, respectively, and hindered some from going to work. To address this, the government will urgently distribute targeted subsidies to the hardest-hit sectors to cushion higher prices,” Chua said.

Of the 1.3 million net employment loss, 1.1 million were from agriculture while 500,000 were from services. This was slightly tempered by 300,000 employment generated in the industry sector.

By broad industry group, the services sector continued to dominate other sectors as having the largest share of employed persons at 58%. 

A combined share of 42% of the 45.63 million employed population were engaged in agriculture at 23.6% and the industry at 18.4%.

The top five sub-sectors with the highest year-on-year increase in employment are the following:

• Administration and support service activities - 349,000
• Accommodation and food service activities - 343,0000
• Transportation and storage - 289,000
• Agriculture and forestry - 251,000
• Construction - 249,00

On the other hand, three subsectors registered the largest year-on-year in the number of employed, namely:

• Fishing and aquaculture  - 59,000
• Education - 55,000
• Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles - 24,000

Zamboanga Peninsula registered the highest employment rate at 97.1% while the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) posted the lowest employment rate at 91.9%.

Six of the country’s 17 regions posted lower employment rates compared to the 94.3% national estimate. These were the following: BARMM (91.9%), NCR (92.5%), Region IV-A (93.2%), Region V (93.8%), Region VIII (94.0%) and Region I (94.1%).

Underemployed

Out of the 45.63 million employed Filipinos, 6.4 million were underemployed in April, reflecting an underemployment rate of 14% which is lower than the 17.2% in April 2021 and 15.8% in March.

Underemployment rate refers to the percentage of persons with jobs or livelihoods but expressed desire to have additional hours of work or to have an additional job.

In particular, visible underemployment rate or the proportion of underemployed persons working less than 40 hours in a week was reported at 9.2%, lower than the 12.3% reported in April 2021.

On the other hand, the invisible underemployment rate or the proportion of underemployed persons working at least 40 hours in a week was placed at 4.8%, down from 4.9% in April last year.

Face-to-face classes

Chua reiterated that the country cannot entirely reap the benefits of Alert Level 1 or the full reopening of the economy without the full resumption of face-to-face classes.

Full resumption of in-person learning is among the strategies cited in Executive Order No. 166, which adopts the Economic Development Cluster’s 10-point-policy agenda to accelerate and sustain economic recovery.

The country’s chief economist said that without the full resumption of face-to-face classes, businesses that cater to students remain closed or operate at reduced capacity.

In addition, one-fourth of parents cannot go to work as they need to support and manage their children’s online schooling, thus limiting the income generation of some households. 

“The Philippine economy has recovered to its pre-pandemic gross domestic product level this year. We must now focus on accelerating our growth by strengthening our domestic economy and investing in the education and development of our children. This will help secure better employment opportunities for future generations,” Chua said.  

The Socioeconomic Planning chief earlier said that opening all 60,743 schools for in-person learning will increase economic activity by P12 billion per week.

This is on top of the estimated P16.5 billion to be added to the country’s gross domestic product each week the entire Philippines is under Alert Level 1.

Amid external risks due to the Ukraine-Russia war, Chua added that the government’s targeted subsidies could help in restoring jobs in hard-hit sectors.

The government is rolling out targeted subsidies amounting to P6.1 billion for the transport and agriculture sectors, consisting of P5 billion worth of fuel vouchers to qualified public utility vehicle drivers and operators who will each receive a 6,500-peso fuel subsidy under the Pantawid Pasada program and P1.1 billion as fuel discounts to farmers and fisherfolk.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board also approved the one-peso provisional fare increase for public utility jeepneys in the National Capital Region, Region 3, and Region 4A to address increasing fuel prices.

Chua added that the Civil Service Commission has allowed government offices to adopt flexible work arrangements, such as four-day work weeks, to help employees save on fuel costs. —KBK, GMA News