Jobless Filipinos declined further to 2.17M in May —PSA

The number of unemployed Filipinos continued its downtrend in May due to increased economic activity seen during the period, latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Labor Force Survey on Friday showed.

At a press conference, National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa reported that the number of jobless persons ages 15 years-old and above shrank to 2.17 million in May 2023 from 2.26 million in April 2023, down by around 89,000 month-on-month.

This is also lower than the 2.93 million unemployed individuals recorded in May 2022, down by about 760,000 persons.

The 2.17 million unemployed in May this year is the third lowest since October 2016’s 2.04 million jobless and 2.05 million unemployed recorded in October 2019.

As a percentage to the total 50.43 million persons in the labor force, the unemployment rate stood at 4.3%, lower than the 4.5% in April 2023 and 6% in May 2022.

This means that 43 out of 1,000 individuals had no jobs or livelihoods during the period, according to the PSA chief.

"Ito ang pangalawang pinakamababa sa naitalang unemployment rate simula noong Abril 2005," Mapa said. 

(This is the second-lowest unemployment recorded since April 2005.)

The number of employed individuals, meanwhile, grew by about 202,000 to 48.26 million from 48.06 million in April 2023.

Year-on-year, employed persons grew by 2.18 million from 46.08 million in May 2022.

The number of persons with jobs in May this year as a percentage to the total 50.43 million labor force participants translates to an employment rate of 95.7%, higher than the 95.5% in April 2023 and 94% in May 2022.

Mapa said the good investment climate as well as the seasonal increase in economic activity in the second quarter, following the usual decline in the first quarter, resulted in the increase in employed and decrease in unemployed persons.

The Services sector continued to dominate all the sectors having the lion’s share of 58.8% or 28.39 million of the total employed persons in May 2023.

The Agriculture sector followed, accounting for 24.3% or 11.73 million in the total, while the Industry sector contributed 16.9% or 8.15 million.

On the other hand, the top five sub-sectors with the highest year-on-year increase in the number of employed persons in May 2023 were the following:

• Agriculture and forestry (1.25 million)
• Accommodation and food service activities (398,000)
• Other service activities (365,000)
• Fishing and aquaculture (351,000)
• Arts, entertainment, and recreation (305,000)

The top five sectors that saw drops in the number of employed persons from a year earlier were as follows:

• Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (-781,000)
• Construction (-274,000)
• Manufacturing (-253,000)
• Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (-78,000)
• Information and communication (-51,000)

Breaking down the distribution of employed persons by class of worker, wage and salary workers accounted for the largest share with 60.5% or 29.20 million of the total.

Self-employed persons comprised 28.1% or 13.58 million, while unpaid family workers accounted for 9.2% or 4.43 million of the total employed individuals.

Among wage and salary workers, employed persons in private establishments made up 46.5% of the total employed persons, followed by those employed in government or government-controlled corporations with 8.8% share.

The number of underemployed persons or those who expressed desire to have additional work hours in their present job or to have an additional job or to have a new job with longer hours of work was reported at 5.66 million of the 48.26 million employed persons.

This translates to an underemployment rate of 11.7% in May 2023.

The underemployment rate in May 2023 was also the second lowest since April 2005 with March 2023 underemployment rate of 11.2% being the lowest, according to Mapa.

In a separate statement, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said that “the government will continue to push for and implement game-changing reforms to improve the country’s business investment climate, especially for foreign investors, and help in sustaining current labor market gains.”

“To achieve our near and medium-term targets, it is important that the government remains committed to fostering a favorable investment climate to address critical constraints to high-quality job creation,” Balisacan said.

The country’s chief economist noted that establishing an enabling regulatory environment to improve the ease of doing business and encourage innovation remain as the top priorities to attract investors who have the technology and resources to bring in high-quality jobs.

The NEDA chief also urged Filipinos to enroll in upskilling and lifelong learning programs to prepare for the jobs of the future.

“We welcome partnerships with the private sector, including international organizations, to ensure that our government services, particularly with respect to employment facilitation, upskilling or retooling, and promoting workers’ protection, are on the same level with global best practices,” Balisacan said. —VAL, GMA Integrated News