Majority of Filipinos get side jobs to boost income —study

Majority of Filipinos are taking on extra work or starting a business to be able to augment their income, according to the latest Shopperscope study of marketing and data analytics firm Kantar.

The annual study, taking into consideration input from 2,000 households across the Philippines from February to April this year, shows that 73% or seven out of 10 Filipinos say they are “managing” their resources.

“Despite the challenges, Filipinos who are managing are looking for means to extend their resources. Our Shopperscope respondents who classify as managing reveal that they are adding an extra job on top of a regular one or are starting a business to augment their primary source of income,” Laurice Obana, Consumer and Shopper Insight director at the Worldpanel Division of Kantar Philippines, said.

“We’ve observed that this behavior has resulted to a ‘hustle culture’ among Filipinos, as they try to earn more but at the expense of time for chores, personal interests, and other activities,” she added.

The same study showed that 19% of households described themselves as “struggling” to keep afloat, citing job cuts or having less working hours, in turn affecting their take-home pay.

Latest data available from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) show that there were 2.38 million jobless Filipinos in July, up from the 1.62 million million unemployed individuals in the June, as many of the fresh graduates from college and senior high school were not absorbed by employers.

Meanwhile, the remaining 8% or respondents in the Kantar study had a sense of “comfort” with their current economic situation.

In terms of purchasing, Kantar said those that classified themselves as “managing” were stretching their funds to get more value for their money, while those “struggling” have made cuts on their overall spend for fast-moving consumer goods.

The study found that 52% of the households expect their financial status to remain the same in the next 12 months, while 41% expect an improvement and 7% believe that things will worsen.

“A key insight this year is the ongoing ‘hustle culture’ where Filipinos take a more proactive role in filling the financial needs of the family and this is at the expense of having less time for chores and other personal activities,” Obana said.

“Therefore, brands and retailers should be looking into how their products and services can help consumers live more efficiently while continuing to offer value,” she added. —KBK, GMA Integrated News