Unemployed Filipinos ease to 2.24M in October, employed down to 47.11M

The number of unemployed Filipinos slightly decreased in October, but the number of employed persons also dropped amid the seasonal drop in those joining the labor force due to opening of schools, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday.

At a press briefing, PSA chief and National Statistician Dennis Mapa presented the results of the October 2022 Labor Force Survey.

“Ang unemployed persons o bilang ng mga nasa labor force na walang trabaho o negosyo nitong Oktubre 2022 ay nasa 2.24 million,” Mapa said.

(The unemployed persons or the number of individuals in the labor force without jobs or livelihoods this October 2022 was 2.24 million.)

The number of jobless persons ages 15 and above in October was lower than the 2.50 million unemployed individuals recorded in September.

Year-on-year, unemployed persons during the period were also lower compared to 3.50 million jobless in October 2021.

The October unemployment rate stood at 4.5% from 5% in September and 7.4% in October 2021.

Mapa said the October unemployment rate is the lowest since the similar 4.5% print seen in pre-pandemic October 2019.

Despite the decline in jobless individuals, the number of employed Filipinos saw a drop to 47.11 million during the month from 47.58 million in September but higher than the 43.82 million employed in October 2021.

Employment rate settled at 95.5% in October, slightly higher than the 95% in September.

The October employment rate is the highest record since the start of the pandemic.

Mapa explained that the drop in both unemployed and employed persons during the period was due to “seasonal factors” as seen in the decline in labor force participation during the October survey round compared to the previous quarter survey round in July.

In particular, the number of individuals who are part of the labor force declined to 49.35 million from 49.99 million in July, reflecting a drop of about 646,000 participants during the comparable periods.

“In July, break ‘yun eh, nakita namin na maraming nag-participate na 15 to 24 [years old]…  Ito namang Oktubre ay bumalik na sila sa eskuwela so merong portion dito na nasa 15 to 24 na bumalik sa eskuwela. This is about 932,000,” Mapa said.

(In July, that was school break, we saw that many who are 15 to 24 participated in  the labor force… In October, they returned to school so there is a portion ages 15 to 24 who went back to school. This is about 932,000.)

Nonetheless, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief Arsenio Balisacan said the “move to finally open face-to-face classes at full capacity has paved the way for us to immediately address the learning losses from the pandemic—this is a precursor to a workforce that demonstrates competence and high productivity.”

“Also, with children back in school, parents-at-home — especially mothers — are also able to pursue more income opportunities,” Balisacan said. 

Underemployed

Meanwhile, the number of 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— declined to 6.67 million in October from 7.33 million in September and 7.04 million in October 2021.

This translates to an underemployment rate of 14.2%, lower than the underemployment rate of 15.4% in September and 16.1% in October last year.

With this, Balisacan said the government recognizes the “need to expand efforts towards creating more and high quality employment by improving workforce employability.”

“We need to do this if we really want to pursue economic transformation,” the NEDA chief said.

Top sectors

The Labor Force Survey also revealed that the services sector remains the top employer with 59.2% share in the labor market.

The agriculture and the industry sectors followed with 22.5% and 18.3%, respective shares in the number of employed persons.

In terms of year-on-year change, the top five sub-sectors with the highest increase on the number of employed persons  were the following:

• Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (672,000)
• Transportation and storage (553,000)
• Construction (426,000)
• Accommodation and food service activities (407,000)
• Administrative and support service activities (366,000)

On the other hand, the sub-sectors that reported a decline in the number of employed persons are as follows:

• Agriculture and forestry (-197,000)
• Human health and social work activities (-54,000)
• Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (-52,000)

Emergency employment

Balisacan, meanwhile, cited the implementation of emergency employment programs to minimize employment losses, leveraging technology that will improve knowledge-sharing, and establishing preventive and responsive measures for disaster risk reduction and management across the country as the La Niña season is expected to persist until March 2023.

Recognizing the private sector as the country’s engine for growth, the NEDA chief urged for more public-private partnerships to expand skills development and opportunities in the country. 

“Accelerating economic recovery requires a whole-of-nation approach; on the government’s part, this entails enabling a vibrant economy—sound macroeconomic fundamentals, a level playing field and ease in doing business transactions and service delivery—so it would be easier for the private sector to participate. Accordingly, we hope that the citizens will be more aggressive in improving their skills as well as maintaining good health by continuously following the COVID-19 minimum health protocols and getting fully-vaccinated,” Balisacan said.

“More than reducing the total unemployment, our goal is to ensure that the strategies of the Philippine Development Plan for 2023-2028 will be fully implemented to generate more jobs, green jobs, and high quality jobs that will provide Filipinos sufficient income for their needs, and eventually live the matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay that we all aspire,” he added. —KBK/RSJ, GMA Integrated News