DESPITE the unemployment rate slowing to 5.3 percent in August, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) believes much needs to be done to boost employment generation nationwide.
On Thursday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the country’s unemployment rate in August was higher than the 5.2 percent posted in July but lower than the 8.1 percent posted a year ago.
However, in terms of absolute numbers, a total of 2.68 million Filipinos were jobless in August. This was higher than the 2.6 million recorded in July 2022 but lower than the 3.88 million in August 2021.
“We are now reaping the gains of the safe and gradual full reopening of the economy. However, we must not rest on our laurels—we must harness the benefits of our key economic liberalization laws such as the Public Service Act, Foreign Investments Act, and Retail Trade Liberalization Act,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said.
“These reforms would attract high-value and innovation-driven investments which, in turn, could generate more [jobs] and quality employment,” he added.
PSA data also showed that underemployment worsened, with the underemployment rate at 14.7 percent and the number of underemployed Filipinos reaching 7.03 million in August.
The PSA data showed the unemployment rate was higher than the 13.8 percent recorded in July and was the same as the rate posted in August 2021.
However, in terms of absolute value, there were 548,000 more Filipinos who were underemployed compared to July’s 6.54 million and 488,000 more than the 6.48 million recorded in August last year.
PSA data also showed that invisible underemployment grew 35 percent year-on-year and 11 percent on a month-on-month basis in August 2022.
The 35-percent increase meant 654,000 more Filipinos are invisibly underemployed compared to August 2021; while the 11 percent translated to 253,000 more under this classification compared to July 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 working at least 40 hours in a week. The PSA data includes a number of underemployed persons but with unreported hours worked. These are tagged under invisibly underemployed.
“We must further strengthen our policy interventions so we can generate more jobs, green jobs, and high-quality jobs that provide adequate income for Filipino workers and attain significant poverty reduction. These are necessary steps towards achieving economic transformation,” the Neda chief added.
Higher participation
National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa traced the higher unemployment and underemployment to the increase in Labor Force Participation in August.
Based on the data, the country’s Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) increased to 66.1 percent in August, higher than the 65.2 percent posted in July and 63.6 percent posted in August 2021.
A total of 50.55 million persons were in the labor force in August. This was a 2.44-million increase from the 48.11 million posted in the same period last year and 557,000 more than the 49.99 million recorded in July 2022.
Mapa said that, given the increase in the number of person in the labor force, this also leads to an increase in the number of those who may not be able to find work or would be employed in low-quality jobs.
The growth in the number of Filipinos in the labor force would be due to the new entrants or first timers in the work force. This usually leads to double-digit unemployment rate for these workers.
Further, most of these first time workers are women, aged 15 to 24 years old. Mapa said based on the August data, there were more women who joined the labor force but more of them were not able to find jobs.
“Normally, since this will come from the new entrants, the addition to the labor force participation, sadly, the unemployment of new entrants is higher than the national unemployment rate,” Mapa said in a briefing.
“For example, our unemployment rate is at 5.3 percent, the unemployment rate of new entrants would normally be in the double digits,” he added.
Balisacan said this is the reason behind strategies for a more efficient labor market that will be outlined in the upcoming Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.
This includes improving the quality of education, providing opportunities for life-long learning, in-demand skills development, options to obtain micro-credentials, enhancing job facilitation programs and strengthening linkages among industries, businesses, and training institutions.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes