HUNGER HITS RECORD 30.7%

23.7 million Pinoys unemployed in Sept. 2020 –SWS

Some 39.5 percent of the adult labor force or around 23.7 million Filipinos were unemployed in September 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said Monday.

In its national mobile phone survey conducted from September 17 to 20, the SWS found that adult joblessness had improved, though was still very high, from a record 45.5 percent in July, equivalent to 27.3 million jobless Filipinos.

“Adults who are jobless consists of those who (a) voluntarily left their old jobs, (b) are seeking jobs for the first time, or (c) lost their jobs due to economic circumstances beyond their control,” the SWS explained.

2 of 5 unemployed due to COVID-19

The SWS survey also found that 14 percent or 2 out of 5 unemployed Filipinos lost their jobs during the pandemic.

The other 22 percent lost their jobs or livelihood before the coronavirus pandemic, 12 percent never had a job before, and 52 percent were employed at the time of the survey.

“The proportion of those who lost their job/livelihood during the COVID-19 pandemic declined from 21% in July 2020 to 14% in September 2020,” the SWS said.

Hunger hits record-high

The SWS also found that an estimated 7.6 million families experienced hunger in September 2020, reaching a record-high 30.7 percent.

The SWS said involuntary hunger or hunger due to a lack of food to eat in the past three months rose by 13 points among those with no job or livelihood to 38.3 percent in September.

The same figure also increased to 38.4 percent among those who had never had a job before as well as among those who were employed at the time of the survey to 24.3 percent.

The SWS surveyed 1,249 adult Filipinos using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing.

The survey had a sampling error margin of ±3 percent for national percentages, ±6 percent for Metro Manila, ±5 percent for Balance Luzon, ±6 percent for the Visayas, and ±6 percent for Mindanao. — DVM, GMA News