Jobless Pinoys declined to 3.44M in March —PSA
The number of jobless or unemployed Filipinos eased to 3.44 million in March this year, results of the latest Labor Force Survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed Thursday.
At a virtual press conference, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said the unemployment rate in the third month of 2021 clocked in at 7.1% equivalent to 3.44 million jobless adults (ages 15 and above), down from 8.8% or 4.19 million unemployed individuals in February.
This is a reduction of about 747,000 unemployed persons from February.
The March unemployment rate is the lowest since April 2020, when the highest unemployment rate was registered at 17.6% at the peak of the strict nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The March round of the PSA’s Labor Force Survey (LFS) is the second of the monthly rounds to be conducted by the Statistics agency.
Mapa attributed the decline in unemployed persons to the further reopening of the economy during the period when the survey was conducted (March 8 to 27), which increased the labor force participation rate — the number of adults who are actively looking for work either employed or unemployed — to 65% equivalent to 48.77 million Filipinos from 63.5% in February or 47.34 million adult individuals.
This is the highest labor force participation rate since April 2014, the PSA chief noted.
“There was a substantial increase in the labor force participation in two age groups such as 15 to 24 year olds and 65 and above. Most of them are looking for jobs and got jobs,” Mapa said in a mix of English and Filipino.
He added that there was a month-on-month increase in elementary occupations such as those in construction, agriculture and fisheries, retail trade and retail trade sectors.
“The elementary occupations increased by 1.58 million. Second are service sales workers which saw an increase of about 551,000 and then craft and related trade workers which increased by 308,000. These are the top contributors,” Mapa said.
Employment
Meanwhile, the employment rate improved to 92.9% in March from 91.2% in February.
This translates to a month-on-month increase of about 2.18 million workers who had jobs or businesses to 45.33 million Filipinos from 43.15 million in the prior comparable month.
By broad industry group, Mapa said the services sector remained as the dominant employment hub accounting for 56.0% of the total employed persons in March.
This was followed by the agriculture sector, which accounted for nearly 24.6%, while the industry sector had a share of 19.4% of the total employed persons during the period.
Data from the PSA showed the top five sub-industries with reported increases in the number of employed persons from February to March this year were as follows:
construction, 846,000
wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, 672,000
agriculture and forestry, 623,000
manufacturing, 285,000
fishing and aquaculture, 203,000
On the other hand, the sub-industries with reported large decreases on the number of employed persons from February to March were the following:
education, -248,000
transportation and storage, -194,000
other service activities, -149,000
human health and social work activities, -64,000
information and communication, -62,000
Temporary reversal seen
While unemployment and employment figures improved in March, the Duterte administration’s economic managers “expect to see a temporary reversal of these employment gains in the next LFS (Labor Force Survey) round.”
This is due to the reimposition of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ from March 29 to May 15 in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, and Laguna on account of the second spike in COVID-19 infections seen in the latter half of March.
“However, the impact is expected to be less severe compared to April 2020 given our more risk-managed approach to the present quarantines,” the economic managers said.
“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 (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases,” they said.
The economic managers are the secretaries of Finance, Budget and Management, and Socioeconomic Planning.
Underemployment
Underemployed persons or those who are employed but expressed desire to have additional work hours also declined in March to 16.2% from 18.2% in February.
“In terms of magnitude, 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 jobs, or to have a new job with longer hours of work in March 2021,” Mapa said.
Of the 16.2% underemployment rate, 10.9 percentage points were visibly underemployed or employed persons who worked less than 40 hours in a week and wanted additional hours of work, according to PSA data.
On the other hand, 5.3 percentage points were invisibly underemployed or employed persons who worked more than 40 hours in a week and wanted additional hours of work.
By broad industry group, underemployed persons were highest in the services sector, accounting for 44.3% of the 7.34 million total underemployed persons in March.
Underemployed persons in the agriculture sector accounted for 37.2%, while in the industry sector, 18.5%.
The underemployment rate in the industry sector steadily decreased since January this year, while those in the agriculture and services sectors were erratic in the past three months, according to the PSA.
Mapa clarified that the results of the March LFS can only give reliable estimates on the national level, while the January or the quarterly surveys can give reliable estimates in both national and regional levels.
The next quarterly survey round will cover the month of April.
In terms of total households, the PSA surveyed 11,058 households for the March LFS round, lower than the 11,095 surveyed in the February round.
From the said number of households surveyed in March, 33,455 were individuals ages 15 and above while 34,307 were surveyed during the February survey round. —KBK, GMA News
Jobless Pinoys declined to 3.44M in March —PSA
The number of jobless or unemployed Filipinos eased to 3.44 million in March this year, results of the latest Labor Force Survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed Thursday.
At a virtual press conference, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said the unemployment rate in the third month of 2021 clocked in at 7.1% equivalent to 3.44 million jobless adults (ages 15 and above), down from 8.8% or 4.19 million unemployed individuals in February. This is a reduction of about 747,000 unemployed persons from February.
The March unemployment rate is the lowest since April 2020, when the highest unemployment rate was registered at 17.6% at the peak of the strict nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The March round of the PSA’s Labor Force Survey (LFS) is the second of the monthly rounds to be conducted by the Statistics agency.
Mapa attributed the decline in unemployed persons to the further reopening of the economy during the period when the survey was conducted (March 8 to 27), which increased the labor force participation rate — the number of adults who are actively looking for work either employed or unemployed — to 65% equivalent to 48.77 million Filipinos from 63.5% in February or 47.34 million adult individuals.
This is the highest labor force participation rate since April 2014, the PSA chief noted.
“There was a substantial increase in the labor force participation in two age groups such as 15 to 24 year olds and 65 and above. Most of them are looking for jobs and got jobs,” Mapa said in a mix of English and Filipino.
He added that there was a month-on-month increase in elementary occupations such as those in construction, agriculture and fisheries, retail trade and retail trade sectors.
“The elementary occupations increased by 1.58 million. Second are service sales workers which saw an increase of about 551,000 and then craft and related trade workers which increased by 308,000. These are the top contributors,” Mapa said.
Employment
Meanwhile, the employment rate improved to 92.9% in March from 91.2% in February.
This translates to a month-on-month increase of about 2.18 million workers who had jobs or businesses to 45.33 million Filipinos from 43.15 million in the prior comparable month.
By broad industry group, Mapa said the services sector remained as the dominant employment hub accounting for 56.0% of the total employed persons in March.
This was followed by the agriculture sector, which accounted for nearly 24.6%, while the industry sector had a share of 19.4% of the total employed persons during the period.
Data from the PSA showed the top five sub-industries with reported increases in the number of employed persons from February to March this year were as follows:
construction, 846,000 wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, 672,000 agriculture and forestry, 623,000 manufacturing, 285,000 fishing and aquaculture, 203,000 On the other hand, the sub-industries with reported large decreases on the number of employed persons from February to March were the following:
education, -248,000 transportation and storage, -194,000 other service activities, -149,000 human health and social work activities, -64,000 information and communication, -62,000 Temporary reversal seen
While unemployment and employment figures improved in March, the Duterte administration’s economic managers “expect to see a temporary reversal of these employment gains in the next LFS (Labor Force Survey) round.”
This is due to the reimposition of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ from March 29 to May 15 in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, and Laguna on account of the second spike in COVID-19 infections seen in the latter half of March.
“However, the impact is expected to be less severe compared to April 2020 given our more risk-managed approach to the present quarantines,” the economic managers said.
“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 (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases,” they said.
The economic managers are the secretaries of Finance, Budget and Management, and Socioeconomic Planning.
Underemployment
Underemployed persons or those who are employed but expressed desire to have additional work hours also declined in March to 16.2% from 18.2% in February.
“In terms of magnitude, 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 jobs, or to have a new job with longer hours of work in March 2021,” Mapa said.
Of the 16.2% underemployment rate, 10.9 percentage points were visibly underemployed or employed persons who worked less than 40 hours in a week and wanted additional hours of work, according to PSA data.
On the other hand, 5.3 percentage points were invisibly underemployed or employed persons who worked more than 40 hours in a week and wanted additional hours of work.
By broad industry group, underemployed persons were highest in the services sector, accounting for 44.3% of the 7.34 million total underemployed persons in March.
Underemployed persons in the agriculture sector accounted for 37.2%, while in the industry sector, 18.5%.
The underemployment rate in the industry sector steadily decreased since January this year, while those in the agriculture and services sectors were erratic in the past three months, according to the PSA.
Mapa clarified that the results of the March LFS can only give reliable estimates on the national level, while the January or the quarterly surveys can give reliable estimates in both national and regional levels.
The next quarterly survey round will cover the month of April.
In terms of total households, the PSA surveyed 11,058 households for the March LFS round, lower than the 11,095 surveyed in the February round.
From the said number of households surveyed in March, 33,455 were individuals ages 15 and above while 34,307 were surveyed during the February survey round. —KBK, GMA News