2009 unemployment rises on weak economy

THE number of jobless Filipinos rose last year because of weak economic growth brought about by the global financial crisis. The National Statistics Office (NSO) said Thursday that the number of unemployed Filipinos reached 2.8 million in 2009, or an annual unemployment rate of 7.5 percent.

In 2008, the jobless rate stood at 7.4 percent.

The NSO said there were 1.7 million unemployed males and 1.1 million jobless females in the country last year. “Most of the unemployed persons reached high school,” it said.

The NSO said the ranks of the underemployed reached 6.7 million, resulting in an underemployment rate of 19.1 percent.

The highest underemployment rate was registered in Bicol region at 36.3 percent while the lowest was in Central Luzon at 7.8 percent.

The labor force reached 37.9 million persons, with the annual labor force participation rate at 64 percent.

Of the 35 million employed persons last year, half were engaged in services, mostly in the wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods.

Another 35 percent of the employed were engaged in agriculture while the rest or 14.5 percent worked in the industry sector.

More than half of the total number of employed persons worked as wage and salary workers, while a third were own-account workers.

The share of unpaid family workers to the labor force stood at 12 percent.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) earlier said that fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth might have come in at 1 percent. With the Philippines’ GDP having grown by an average of 0.7 percent in the first three quarters of 2009, the full-year expansion may have settled at 0.9 percent, or slightly above the low-end of the 0.8-percent to 1.8-percent target range. –DARWIN G. AMOJELAR Senior Reporter, Manila Times