OVER a million Filipinos joined the ranks of the underemployed in March 2022 compared to February, according to the latest Labor Force Survey (LFS).
On Friday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that while there was a decline in the ranks of the unemployed, more Filipinos became underemployed in March.
Based on the data, unemployed Filipinos reached 2.875 million while the underemployed reached 7.422 million in March 2022.
“When we look at the quality of jobs, that’s our proxy for underemployment, we saw that the addition to the employment in agriculture and forestry, that’s where the increase in underemployment came from,” National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa told reporters on Friday.
Data from the PSA showed that out of the total underemployed in March, 4.81 million are considered visibly underemployed while 2.612 million are invisibly underemployed.
The number of visibly underemployed Filipinos declined by 118,200 year on year but compared to February 2022, there was a 619,000 increase in their number.
Among the invisibly underemployed, their ranks swelled by 204,500 compared to March 2021 and by 420,700 compared to February 2022.
PSA data showed visible underemployment contracted 2.4 percent compared to last year but increased 14.8 percent compared to last month.
In terms of invisible underemployment, there was an 8.5 percent increase compared to last year and a 19.2 percent jump compared to February this year.
Underemployed persons are employed persons who expressed a 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.
Invisible underemployment is experienced by underemployed persons who are working at least 40 hours in a week while visible underemployment is experienced by underemployed persons working less than 40 hours in a week.
“The average hours worked of an employed person in March 2022 was 40.6 hours. This is lower than the reported average hours worked of an employed person in February 2022 [40.8 hours]but higher than that reported in March 2021 [39.7 hours],” the PSA said in a statement.
The underemployment rate among males at 17.5 percent was higher than females at 13.3 percent. The unemployment rate among females was reportedly higher at 6.4 percent of the 20.38 million total female labor force than their male counterpart at 5.3 percent of the 29.47 million male labor force.
The increase in underemployment may have been driven by the rapid rise in the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR). Mapa said the LFPR of 65.4 percent was the highest at least between April 2020 and March 2022.
By sex, male LFPR was estimated at 76.9 percent while female LFPR was 53.7 percent. Employment rate was likewise higher among males at 94.7 percent than their female counterpart at 93.6 percent.
“The LFPR in March 2022 was higher by 0.4 percentage point from the 65 percent LFPR reported for the same month in 2021, and higher by 1.6 percentage points from the estimate a month ago,” the PSA said in a statement.
By sector, the services sectors dominated the labor market contributing 57.4 percent share of the country’s 46.98 million employed workforce.
The agriculture and the industry sectors accounted for 25.2 percent and 17.4 percent of the employed persons, respectively.
Joblessness
Meanwhile, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) highlighted that the Philippines tallied a new record-low unemployment rate since the start of the pandemic as the majority of the country shifted to alert level 1 in March 2022.
PSA said the country’s unemployment rate fell from 6.4 percent in February to 5.8 percent in March 2022.
Together with higher LFPR, this translated to significant employment creation of 1.5 million between February and March. This brings the net employment to 4.4 million above the pre-pandemic level.
“The March labor force survey results reflect the gains from moving around 70 percent of the economy to alert level 1. As we continue to manage the risks, we reiterate our recommendation to shift the entire country to alert level 1 to generate more employment and strengthen the domestic economy against external shocks,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua.
According to Chua, the country has made significant progress in its recovery. As of May 1, 2022, 81 percent of the economy has shifted to alert level 1. However, the Neda chief emphasized that the country cannot fully recover without fully resuming face-to-face classes.
Through the issuance of Executive Order No. 166, President Duterte directed the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to “strengthen efforts towards the resumption of face-to-face learning.”
“We have already seen a significant recovery in badly hit sectors such as tourism and leisure. We need to take advantage of our progress in vaccination and mobility to fully reopen all sectors, especially face-to-face schooling. This will help secure better opportunities for future generations,” Chua added.
Back to pre-pandemic level
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Assistant Secretary Dominique R. Tutay, for her part, said the government is now a step closer to bringing back the unemployment rate back to its pre-pandemic level.
“We are happy that for the first time after the pandemic our unemployment rate significantly dropped at 5.8 percent. That is equivalent to 2.87 million unemployed Filipinos,” said in a televised interview.
She noted this is closer to the 5.1 percent unemployment rate before the onset of Covid-19 in 2020.
Acting Presidential Spokesman Martin M. Andanar attributed the improvement to the declaration of AL 1 in NCR and other parts of the country.
“This proves how effective our calibrated strategy of shifting to Alert Level System is to further reopen the economy—where more businesses are operating and more Filipinos are able to go to work—while ramping up our Covid-19 vaccination drive,” Andanar said.
For his part, DOLE Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III also lauded the highest employment rate in the latest LFS since the pandemic at 94.2 percent or 46.975 million employed workers. But he expressed concern with the underemployment rate slightly increasing to 15.8 percent or 7.422 million underemployed workers in March 2022 which, he said, is higher than February 2022 with 14.0 percent or 6.382 million.
“These figures encourage us to do more within our remaining days in office and continue our efforts as we transition to a new administration,” Bello said.
He said they expect their partnership with the Employers Confederation of the Philippines for the generation of more jobs as well as the other initiatives of the National Employment Recovery Strategy task force and the International Labor Organization to maintain the said employment gains.