The country’s unemployment rate dipped in March to 4.7 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday.
The PSA said based on its latest labor force survey, the jobless rate showed improvement from the 5.8 percent recorded in March 2022 and 4.8 percent in February 2023.
The latest unemployment rate translates to 2.42 million unemployed Filipinos out of 51 million Filipinos who were in the labor force in March 2023.
The quality of employment likewise recorded significant gains, as the underemployment rate in March went down to 11.2 percent, from 15.8 percent in the same month last year and 12.9 percent in February 2023. This is the lowest underemployment rate reported since April 2005.
The reported underemployment rate was equivalent to 5.44 million persons who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, to have an additional job, or to have a new job with long hours of work.
In a statement, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) reiterated the government’s commitment to enhancing labor productivity and strengthening the push for investments that would generate high-quality jobs for Filipino workers to sustain the robust labor market performance and raise welfare.
To sustainably raise wages and improve worker welfare, NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the government is addressing persistent issues and constraints to improving labor productivity and high-quality job generation.
“Passing major economic liberalization reforms is a critical first step. However, in a region where our neighbors are also aggressively competing for investments, we must leverage on these changes to the country’s policy regime by ensuring that we urgently address on-the-ground concerns related to the ease of doing business. Investors must not be kept waiting — we must create an enabling regulatory environment that makes it easy for them to set up shop, expand, and generate the high-quality jobs we need,” he added.
As the government pursues its infrastructure drive through the infrastructure flagship projects or under the Build-Better-More program, significant and sustained improvements in human capital will be needed to complement the productivity gains from investments in physical capital, NEDA said.
“Improving the country’s health, nutrition and education-related outcomes will be key to maintaining the competitiveness of the country’s labor force relative to those of its Southeast Asian neighbors. Investments in human capital will ensure that the growing working-age population will be able to maximize the job, market and technological opportunities made available to it and allow the country to reap the benefits of the demographic dividend,” the NEDA chief said.
The PSA also said labor force participation rate in March was registered at 66 percent, higher than the 65.4 percent recorded in March last year but lower than the 66.6 percent reported in February 2023.
Employment rate in March 2023 was estimated at 95.3 percent, higher than the reported employment rate in the same month last year at 94.2 percent and in the previous month at 95.2 percent.
In terms of magnitude, the number of employed persons in March 2023 was estimated at 48.58 million, posting an increase of 1.61 million from the 46.98 million employed persons in March 2022.
“With labor force participation up and unemployment and underemployment down, more Filipinos are actively joining the labor force and getting jobs. These continued improvements indicate that our economy is poised for continued recovery and growth,” Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said in a separate statement.
“The government’s drive to attract foreign direct investments, mainly through the economic liberalization laws and efforts to enhance the ease of doing business in the Philippines, are expected to generate jobs and business opportunities in the medium term,” he added.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the economic team commits to focus on empowering the Filipino workforce by creating quality jobs and employment opportunities.
“Rest assured we will continue to endeavor with implementing measures that will strengthen our financial and technical assistance to our workers,” Pangandaman said.
