Jobless adult Filipinos reach 9.8 million in Q3 of 2018

by Consuelo Marquez, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Nov 10, 2018

Jobless adult Filipinos numbered 9.8 million in the third quarter of the 2018, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, whose results were released on Saturday.

In a survey conducted from Sept. 15 to 23, 2018, the SWS said adult joblessness was at 22 percent, which is 2.3 points higher the 19.7 percent recorded in June 2018.

READ: SWS survey says 8.9M Filipinos remain jobless in Q3 of 2017

Of the total number of jobless adults, 9.2 percent — or 4.1 million — were retrenched, 8.4 percent — or 3.7 million — voluntarily left their jobs, and 4.4 percent — or two million — were first-time job seekers.

The 9.2 percent who were retrenched composed of 6.6 percent had previous contracts that were not renewed, 1.6 percent were laid off, and 1 percent had employers that closed operations.

SWS said joblessness was highest in Metro Manila with 26.4 percent, which is 6.9 points up from 19.4 percent in June 2018.

In Balance Luzon, joblessness was at 22.9 percent which is 3.5 points higher than 19.3 percent in June.

In Mindanao, it was at 19.7 percent down by 1.5 points from 21.2 percent in June.

Meanwhile, in Visayas, joblessness also increased with 19.6 percent which was .6 points higher from 19 percent in June.

The survey also revealed that joblessness was higher among women at 32.8 percent compared to men at 14.3 percent.

Women’s joblessness was 6.7 points higher than June’s 26.1 percent compared to men which was 1.3 points higher than 15.6 percent in June.

SWS also showed the result on net optimism for job availability which was at +24 or “high”

Optimism that there will be more jobs decreased by 8 points with 39 percent in September from 47 percent in June.

However, pessimism that there will be fewer jobs rose by one point from 15 percent in June to 16 percent in September.

Meanwhile, for those who say there will be no change in job availability increased by 3 points from 24 percent in June 2018 to 27 percent in September.

The September 2018 survey asked its respondents: “Sa darating na 12 buwan mula ngayon, sa palagay ba ninyo ay DADAMI, HINDI MAGBABAGO, o MABABAWASAN ang trabaho na maaaring pasukan?”

SWS said adult joblessness is composed of “those who voluntarily left their old jobs, those who lost their jobs due to economic circumstances and those seeking jobs for the first time.”

The survey involved interviews with 1,500 adults — that is, those aged 18 years and older — of which 600 were interviewed in Balance Luzon and 300 each in Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao.

The survey had a sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, ±4 percent for Balance Luzon, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao. /atm