Over 166,000 workers were displaced from 2014 to 2017, a study conducted by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) showed.
In its JobsFit 2022 report, the DOLE said nationwide displacement grew an average of 16.2 percent during the said period.
The biggest increase was in 2015, when displacement soared to 43,556 from just 27,487 in the previous years.
The number of retrenched workers continued to increase to 45,589 in 2016 and 50,089 in 2017.
“The top reason for displacement are redundancy and reorganizations or downsizing,” the DOLE said citing latest data from its Job Displacement Monitoring System (JDMS).
JDMS is the compilation of the notices shutdown/displacement submitted by employers to DOLE’s regional offices.
The DOLE said most of the displacement was in the industry sector with a compounded annual growth of 17.7 percent or 9,577 retrenched workers per year during the period.
The bulk of the retrenched workers in the industry sector were from firms manufacturing subsector. The subsector comprised 35 percent, or 58,390 of the 166,721 displaced workers from 2014 to 2017.
Another big loser in terms of displacement were the workers in the administrative and support service activities subsector, which has a total of 42,492 retrenched workers.
The subsectors with the least displacement for the period were those in the accommodation and food service sector, as well as the information and communication sector.
The JobsFit 2022 report has yet to include the displacement figures for 2018, which is still be processed by the DOLE.