One in four Philippine workers hit by Covid curbs still jobless

The Philippines is expected to post the highest jobless rate in Asia this year. - Reuters

MANILA (Bloomberg): Nearly a quarter of Philippine employees laid off since a pandemic lockdown was first imposed last March remain jobless or are no longer looking for work, even as the economy has mostly been reopened, the country’s statistics agency said.

Some 75% of the 9.1 million laid-off workers in the agency’s survey found jobs, but 1.2 million are still unemployed. Another 1 million were no longer in the workforce as of last month, according to data released Tuesday (March 30).