Number of jobless Pinoys down in past 6 months

by Janvic Mateo (The Philippine Star), 18 Jun 2021

MANILA, Philippines — The number of jobless Filipinos has slightly declined over the past six months but remains above pre-pandemic level, a new survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The survey, conducted from April 28 to May 2 with the results released yesterday, showed that the adult joblessness rate in the country is at 25.8 percent of the labor force or an estimated 12.2 million Filipinos.

It went down by 1.5 points from 27.3 percent in November last year, but still 8.3 points higher than the pre-pandemic level of 17.5 percent in December 2019.

SWS defines the labor force as adults 18 years and above who are employed plus those looking for a job. The jobless consist of those who voluntarily left their old jobs, seeking work for the first time or lost their jobs due to economic circumstances beyond their control.

According to SWS, adult joblessness in the country reached a record-high 45.5 percent last July amidst the quarantine restrictions imposed due to the pandemic. It eased to 39.5 percent in September and 27.3 percent in November.

The decline in the national joblessness rate was due to decreases in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon, offset by increases in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Despite the decline, joblessness is still highest in Metro Manila at 30.8 percent (down from 37.8 percent in November), followed by Visayas at 28.7 percent (up from 19.1 percent), rest of Luzon at 24.2 percent (down from 32.7 percent) and Mindanao at 23 percent (up from 17 percent).

It is also higher in urban areas at 28 percent (down from 29.8 percent) than in rural areas at 23.3 percent (down from 24.9 percent).

By gender, joblessness hardly changes among men at 23.6 percent (from 22.2 percent), while it fell among women at 29 percent (from 34.1 percent).

It is highest among the 18-24 age group at 55.5 percent (from 57.2 percent), followed by those aged 35 to 44 at 25.6 percent (from 23.9 percent), 24 to 34 at 24.6 percent (from 33.6 percent) and above 45 at 18.2 percent (from 18 percent).

In terms of educational attainment, joblessness is highest among high school graduates at 30 percent (from 30.8 percent), closely followed by college graduates at 29.7 percent (from 30 percent), elementary graduates at 21.6 percent (from 24.2 percent) and non-elementary graduates at 11 percent (from 16.4 percent).

The survey had 1,200 adult respondents with a margin of error of +/- three percent for national percentages.

SWS’ adult joblessness rate is comparable with the combined unemployment and underemployment rates of the Philippine Statistics Authority, which is at 24.4 percent of the Filipino labor force (above 15 years old) as of April 2021.