The country’s employment and jobless rates in January remained steady from the same period last year, while the underemployment rate improved from a year ago, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) yesterday showed.
However, according to the latest Labor Force Survey, the actual number of Filipinos with jobs as well as those who are unemployed rose from January 2019, due to the higher labor force participation this year.
According to the PSA, the employment rate in January 2020 was estimated at 94.7 percent, same as the previous year’s level.
The actual number of employed persons went up by four percent to 42.65 million, from 41.03 million a year ago.
The unemployment rate in January 2020 meanwhile was estimated at 5.3 percent, same from last year.
In nominal terms, however, the number of jobless Filipinos increased by 4.7 percent to 2.39 million, from 2.28 million a year ago.
“The population 15 years and older was estimated at 73 million in January 2020. This estimate was placed at 71.89 million last year of the same period,” Wilma Guillen, assistant national statistician, said in a press briefing in Quezon City yesterday.
“Out of this population, 45.04 million were part of the labor force in January 2020 compared to 43.31 million last year of the same month,” she added.
Thus, the labor force participation rate increased to 61.7 percent, from 61.3 percent in January 2019.
Meanwhile, the underemployment rate, which is the percentage of the underemployed to the total employed, was estimated at 14.8 percent, an improvement from 15.4 percent in January 2019.
Underemployed workers are defined as employed persons who expressed the 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 working hours.
The actual number of underemployed individuals also went down by 0.1 percent to 6.32 million, from 6.33 million in January 2019.
