The country’s jobless rate declined in October as economic restrictions are gradually relaxed but the underemployment rate rose from the previous month’s level, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said this puts the Philippine employment situation far from going back to pre- pandemic levels.
The latest labor force survey showed the unemployment rate in October was the third lowest reported in 2021 at 7.4 percent, lower than the 8.9 percent, in September and 8.7 percent a year ago.
The total number of unemployed persons 15 years old and over in October 2021 was registered at 3.5 million.
“Unemployment rate went down to 7.4 percent or equivalent to about 3.5 million.
Compared to September 2021, this is already better. But it is not yet good when compared to the pre-pandemic situation. That is still high because the unemployment rate pre-pandemic is at 5.1 percent, which is equivalent to around 2.4 million. We are still far off,” said Dominique Tutay, DOLE assistant secretary.
The country’s economic team expressed hope sustaining gains from the eased restrictions and lower COVID cases “will allow us to recover to the pre-pandemic level in early 2022, a year ahead of the government’s initial estimates.
Underemployment rate or employed persons who expressed desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work was registered at 16.1 percent in October 2021.
This is higher than the 14.2 percent recorded the previous month and 14.4 percent in the same period a year ago.
The labor force participation rate also slightly decreased to 62.6 percent in October from 63.3 percent in September, but improved from the 58.7 percent recorded in the same time in 2020.
The economic team pointed out that more people are employed today than in the months before the pandemic struck.
The PSA said employment in the country improved with a reported 43.83 million employed persons in October 2021 from 39.84 million employed persons in the same period last year.
The employment rate thus posted an increase from 91.1 percent in September 2021 to 92.6 percent this October. In the same period a year ago, it was at 91.3 percent.
“Employment creation remained positive as 234,000 more Filipinos were able to find work in the past month. This brings total employment to 1.3 million above pre-pandemic levels,” the economic managers said.
In a separate statement, the DOLE expressed optimism that the October 2021 LFS results is only the beginning of a “continued and sustained recovery” of the labor market.
“We are confident that employment figures will improve further with the increasing vaccine coverage, the safe reopening of more businesses as we lower our alert levels, and more importantly, the government’s focus on improving the labor market,” it said. – Angela Celis and Gerard Naval
