This translates to 2.5 million jobless Filipinos in September, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.
Employment rate, on the other hand, was estimated at 95 percent in September, an improvement from 91.1 percent recorded in the same period last year.
An additional 2.2 million Filipinos joined the workforce, raising the country’s labor force participation rate to 65.2 percent in September 2022 from 63.3 percent year-on-year as businesses resumed operations.
“The recent survey results show the gains of the full reopening of our economy. The government will leverage this momentum by strengthening policy interventions and investing in innovation and technology systems geared toward generating higher-quality employment that provides adequate income for Filipino workers and their families,” said National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.
Employment growth was observed across all sectors with the services sector accounting for 2.8 million more employed individuals, followed by the industry and agriculture sectors that registered an additional 682,000 and 461,000 additional employment, respectively.
However, the underemployment rate worsened to 15.4 percent from 14.2 percent in September 2021, as more than 882,000 individuals sought to earn additional income with the spike in commodity prices due to inflation.
“Ensuring food security remains our top priority. In the immediate term, the government is providing targeted cash transfer as well as fuel and crop subsidies to help protect the purchasing power of Filipinos and reduce the incidence of invisible underemployment among low-income households,” Balisacan said. (KOC)