The country’s unemployment rate eased in March following the further reopening of the economy during the period, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
However, the latest Labor Force Survey (LFS) was conducted prior to the implementation of stricter quarantine measures in the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus area from March 29 due to the recent surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, thus the economic managers are expecting a temporary reversal in the employment gains in the next survey round.
The PSA reported that unemployment rate fell to 7.1 percent in March 2021, from 8.8 percent the previous month.
The agency said this is the lowest reported rate covering the period of the COVID-19 pandemic since April 2020.
The number of unemployed Filipinos 15 years and over in March 2021 was estimated at 3.44 million, a reduction of about 747,000 unemployed persons from February 2021.
In a joint statement, the country’s economic managers said the labor market saw gains in March following the reopening of the economy.
The labor force participation rate (LFPR) bounced back to 65 percent in March 2021, the highest recorded since April 2014.
This translates to a total of 48.77 million Filipinos 15 years old and over who were either employed or unemployed.
“We saw that there was a substantial increase in the LFPR of those in the 15-24 age group, which rose 2.4 percentage points (ppt)… as well as for those 65 above, which saw LFPR increase by 2.7 ppt,” Dennis Mapa, national statistician, said during a virtual press conference yesterday.
Meanwhile, the PSA said the employment rate rose to 92.9 percent in March 2021, from 91.2 percent the previous month. This translates to a month-on-month increase of about 2.18 million Filipinos who had a job or business, from 43.15 million in February 2021 to 45.33 million Filipinos in March 2021.
Mapa said the highest increase in employment, in terms of sector, was seen in elementary occupations, which included laborers/unskilled workers or those with simple and routine tasks usually with handheld tools and considerable physical effort, and it recorded an increase of 1.58 million from the previous month.
Also top contributors are service and sales workers which saw an increase of 551,000, and trade workers which went up by 308,000.
The underemployment rate in the country also recorded a decline at 16.2 percent in March, from 18.2 percent in February 2021.
In terms of magnitude, the PSA said about 7.34 million of the employed persons expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work in March.
The economic managers said with the recovery of the economy after the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was relaxed in mid-2020, 11.5 million jobs have been generated as of March 2021, more than offsetting the 8.7 million jobs that were lost in the period March to May 2020.
This translates to a net job creation of 2.8 million jobs.
However, NCR and four adjacent provinces, or the NCR Plus area, were placed under ECQ, and eventually modified ECQ (MECQ) from March 29. The survey for the March LFS was conducted from March 8 to 27.
“Given the imposition of ECQ and MECQ in the NCR-plus bubble from March 29 to May 15, 2021, we expect to see a temporary reversal of these employment gains in the next LFS round. However, the impact is expected to be less severe compared to April 2020 given our more risk-managed approach to the present quarantines,” National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, and Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said in their joint statement.
“Unlike last year’s ECQ and MECQ where around three-fourths of the economy was shut down, most sectors of the economy, including public transport, this time around are allowed to operate subject to guidelines from the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases,” they added.
