Unemployed Filipinos rise to 2.68M in August

The number of jobless Filipinos rose in August from the prior month, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority on Thursday showed.

At a virtual press briefing, PSA chief and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa reported the preliminary results of the Labor Force Survey which revealed that there were 2.68 million unemployed individuals—ages 15 and above—in August, higher than the 2.60 million jobless Filipinos in July.

This translates to an unemployment rate of 5.3%, higher than the 5.2% recorded in July.

Year-on-year, however, the number of unemployed Filipinos was lower in August this year than the 3.88 million jobless in August 2021.

The top-five sub-sectors in terms of the level of month-on-month drop in employment from July to August were the following:

•     Fishing and aquaculture (-286,000)
•     Construction (-258,000)
•     Arts, entertainment, and recreation (-64,000)
•     Human health and social work activities (-37,000)
•     Real estate activities (-37,000)

Despite the rise in jobless persons, employed individuals still grew to 47.87 million from 47.39 million in July.

This translates to an employment rate of 94.7% in August, slightly lower than the 94.8% employment rate in July.

The rise in unemployed persons despite the increase in the employed ones was due to the more Filipinos joining the labor force at 50.55 million in August from 49.99 million in July due to easing of restrictions and entry of younger job seekers, according to Mapa.

Labor force participation rate stood at 66.1% from 65.2% month-on-month. This is the highest recorded since start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“‘Pag tumataas ang labor force participation nang substantial… tumataas ang employment at unemployment pareho kasi may mga nag-participate na hindi nakahanap ng trabaho,” Mapa said.

(When labor force participation increases substantially… both employment and unemployment figures increase because some of the participants failed to find jobs.)

The PSA chief said most of the new entrants in the labor force were first timers and within the age group 15 to 24 year-olds and 24 to 35 year-olds.

In particular, youth labor force participation rate was estimated at 38% —the highest reported rate since January 2022.

Underemployment rate — the percentage of persons with jobs or livelihoods but expressed desire to have additional hours of work or to have an additional job — increased to 14.7% from 13.8% in July.

In a separate news release, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the country is “reaping the gains of the safe and gradual full reopening of the economy.”

“However, we must not rest on our laurels—we must harness the benefits of our key economic liberalization laws such as the Public Service Act, Foreign Investments Act, and Retail Trade Liberalization Act. These reforms would attract high-value and innovation-driven investments which, in turn, could generate more and quality employment,” he said.

The NEDA chief noted that the agriculture sector, which accounts for 22.6% of total employment, shed around 265,000 employment year-on-year due to high fuel and fertilizer prices, African swine fever, bird flu, and weather disturbances.

“We need to make sure that we are effectively implementing our disaster risk management measures, including social protection programs for communities affected by the recent calamities. Leveraging technology will improve preventive and responsive measures and mitigate possible labor market downturns in times of disasters,” Balisacan said. 

The country’s chief economist said the strategies for a more efficient labor market that will be outlined in the upcoming Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, which includes improving the quality of education, providing opportunities for life-long learning, in-demand skills development, options to obtain micro-credentials, enhancing job facilitation programs and strengthening linkages among industries, businesses, and training institutions.

“We must further strengthen our policy interventions so we can generate more jobs, green jobs, and high-quality jobs that provide adequate income for Filipino workers and to attain significant poverty reduction. These are necessary steps towards achieving economic transformation,” Balisacan said.—AOL, GMA News