Jobless Filipinos decrease to 2.50M in September; employed persons also down

The number of jobless Filipinos decreased in September from the prior month, but employed individuals also declined amid the drop in those joining the labor force as they opted to go back to school during the period, results of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) latest Labor Force Survey (LFS) showed on Tuesday.

At a press briefing, PSA chief and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa reported the preliminary results of the LFS which found that there were 2.50 million unemployed persons — ages 15 and above— in September, lower than the 2.68 million jobless Filipinos in August.

This translates to an unemployment rate of 5%, lower than the 5.3% unemployment rate in the previous month.

Year-on-year, the number of unemployed persons was lower in September than the 4.28 million jobless in September 2021.

Despite the decline in joblessness, the number of employed Filipinos also dropped to 47.58 million in September from 47.87 million in August, translating to an employment rate of 95% from 94.7% in the prior month.

Compared to the previous year, employed persons in September 2022 were higher than the 43.59 million employed individuals recorded in September 2021.

Mapa explained that the decline in both unemployment and employment figures was due to the decrease in the labor force participation.

“We saw that the labor force participation declined by close to 500,000… The reason for this was a portion of the workforce decided to go back to school since September was the opening of classes,” Mapa said in a mix of English and Filipino.

“This resulted in the decline of both unemployed and employed,” he said.

In particular, the number of individuals who are part of the labor force declined by around 470,000 to 50.08 million in September from 50.55 million in August.

This is equivalent to a labor force participation rate — individuals with and without jobs ages 15 and above — of 65.2% from 66.1%.

Of those who dropped out of the labor force, 41% cited schooling as among their reasons, according to Mapa, noting that these are individuals ages 15 to 24 and 25 to 34.

“What we are saying is we saw an increase of individuals saying they are out of the labor force because they are at school,” the PSA chief said.

Top industries

The September LFS also revealed the top five major industries with the largest drop in month-on-month employment:

• Wholesale and retail trade (-335,000);
• Administrative and support service activities (-289,000);
• Construction (-197,000);

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• Agriculture and forestry (120,000); and
• Arts, entertainment, and recreation (105,000).

Mapa said the drop in employed persons in the retail sector came from food and beverages stores, supermarkets and convenience stores.

For the administrative and support sector, the biggest drop was seen in the number of call center activities such as inbound voice calls or those that require the use of human operators and computer telephone integration, according to the PSA chief.

The decline in workers in the construction sector was due to the drop in activities for the construction of buildings, roads and railways, and electrical installation.

In the agriculture and forestry industry, the drop in employment came from planting, transplanting and other related activities, while the drop in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector came from gambling and betting activities, the PSA chief said.

Underemployment

While both employed and unemployed persons dropped, the quality of jobs worsened during the period as underemployed persons — those employed who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their current job or to have an additional job or to have a new job with longer hours of work— increased to 7.33 million in September from 7.03 million in August.

This translates to an underemployment rate of 15.4%, higher than the underemployment rate of 14.7% in August and 14.2% in September.

In a separate statement, the Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said that the “worsened” underemployment figures in September was because “882,000 individuals sought to earn additional income with the spike in commodity prices due to inflation.”

“Ensuring food security remains our top priority. In the immediate term, the government is providing targeted cash transfer as well as fuel and crop subsidies to help protect the purchasing power of Filipinos and reduce the incidence of invisible underemployment among low-income households,” Balisacan said.

Emergency employment

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief raised the need for effective implementation of emergency employment programs and other forms of assistance to immediately assist those who were hard-hit by the calamities.

“As we are expecting La Niña and near to above-normal rainfall conditions in the coming months, we need to boost our disaster resilience and climate adaptation measures,” Balisacan said.

The country’s chief economist also emphasized the importance of the timely passage of the P5.268-trillion 2023 national budget and expediting the implementation of the current budget in accelerating recovery and mitigating impact of external risks, particularly the job-generating infrastructure projects.

“With the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 nearing its completion, we aim to strategize for a more efficient labor market by improving the quality of education, providing opportunities for life-long learning, skills development and options to obtain micro-credentials, enhancing job facilitation programs, and strengthening linkages among industry, business, and training institutions,” Balisacan said. —KG, GMA Integrated News