Unemployment at two-year high in April

THE JOBLESS RATE swelled to 8% in April, a two-year high, which economists said indicated a still weak labor market despite signs of an improving economy.

The latest Labor Force Survey, released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) yesterday, placed the number of Filipinos without work at a higher 3.1 million from 2.8 million a year earlier.

The rate was at 7.3% in the previous quarter and 7.5% in April last year.

Solita C. Monsod, an economist at the University of the Philippines, traced the result to a larger work force, at 38.5 million out of the 60.6 million Filipinos aged 15 years and over. It was at 37.8 million in April 2009.

“It’s no wonder that unemployment increased because there were more people who joined the labor force this year,” Ms. Monsod said.

Some 35.4 million workers had jobs as of April. Barely half a million new positions were created during the prior twelve months, the NSO data showed.

The number of underemployed, or those with jobs but wanting more work, thinned to 6.3 million — a rate of 17.8% — from 6.6 million.

A year earlier underemployment was at 18.9%.

The weak April tally came despite an expected surge in job opportunities during the election season, other economists pointed out.

“The April employment numbers suggest a still weak jobs market, which was surprising in the sense that only 414,000 new jobs were created despite the anticipated higher hiring of workers for election related activities,” UP economist Benjamin E. Diokno said in an e-mail.

This was echoed by University of Asia and the Pacific economist Victor A. Abola, who said: “The labor market is still relatively weak, as the pool of unemployed workers is still large and they can’t seem to find work despite the economy showing signs of improvement”.

The moderation in the underemployment rate could be short-lived, they said.

“The fall in underemployment may be due to the creation of election-related jobs; however, with the creation of 282,000 jobs in the government and government corporations, its sustainability is doubtful given the ballooning budget deficit,” Mr. Diokno said.

“The decline in underemployment must be a hesitancy on the side of businesses to employ new people,” Mr. Abola said.

Of the total 35.4 million employed, 52% were in the services sector. Agriculture accounted for 32.5% while industry covered the remaining 15.5%.

An El Niño-induced dry spell that led to a cut in agriculture output resulted in the loss of 810,000 jobs in the sector, Mr. Abola noted.

The manufacturing industry, meanwhile, saw 211,000 new jobs.

“The increase in the manufacturing sector might be election-related, but some may mean the start of the real recovery in the sector given the increase in exports” Mr. Diokno said.

The share of wage and salary workers in the total workforce rose to 54.5% from 51.9% last year, while the self-employed and unpaid family workers accounted for 33.7% and 11.8%, respectively.

Most of the unemployed (62.5%) were male, and by age group 51.2% of the total jobless were 15 to 24 years of age. By educational level the bulk of the jobless, or 44.5%, finished high school.