Hunger severely felt by families of retrenched workers – SWS survey

MANILA, Philippines – Families of unemployed workers, especially those laid off from their jobs, are significantly suffering from hunger, according to the latest survey by pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS).

In a press statement, the SWS found that Total Hunger — the percentage who suffered involuntarily at least once in the past three months — was 16.9 percent among families of the unemployed, or three percentage points higher than the 13.9 percent hunger among families of the employed.

Moderate Hunger — referring to those suffering “Only Once” or “A Few Times” in the last three months — was 12.5 percent among families of the unemployed, almost three points higher than the 9.6 percent among families of the employed.

Severe Hunger, referring to those suffering “Often” or “Always” in the last three months, was 4.4 percen6t among families of the unemployed — or almost the same as the 4.3 percent among families of the employed.

The SWS said families of government employees are the least affected by hunger. “Among families of the employed, hunger was lower among families of government employees, compared to those of the self-employed and private employees,” the statement said.

“Total Hunger was 7.9 percent among families of government employees, compared to 11.7 percent among families of the self-employed and 20.4 percent among families of private employees.”

“Severe Hunger was 1.0 percent among government employees, compared to 2.4 percent among the self-employed and 9.2 percent among private employees.”

“Moderate Hunger was 6.9 percent among government employees, while it was 9.3 percent among the self-employed and 11.2 percent among private employees.”

The latest SWS survey, conducted from February 20-23, used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults in Metro Manila, the Balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao (sampling error margins of ?3 percent for national percentages, ?6 percent for area percentages).

The area estimates were weighted by National Statistics Office medium-population projections for 2009 to obtain the national estimates. —-Dino Maragay, Philippine Star