A job fair event in Manila. - Photo: Inquirer file
MANILA: The country’s unemployment rate remained stable at below the psychological level of 5 per cent, prompting economic planners to focus on job quality.
In its regular survey of 44,536 households, the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) said the jobless rate was at 4.1 per cent, higher than the April 2024 unemployment rate of 4.0 per cent.
The figure brought the average unemployment rate from January to April to 4 per cent, higher than the 3.8 full-year average for 2024, but better than the 5.1 per cent full-year jobless rate in 2019.
PSA data showed that unemployment was worst in 2020 when the jobless rate hit 10.3 per cent, but it slowed down to 7.8 per cent in 2021, 5.4 per cent in 2022, 4.4 per cent in 2023 and 3.8 per cent in 2024.
It has since stabilised at below 5 per cent, but planners are concerned that, as they predicted, job quality would eventually suffer.
In its latest report, job quality in April hit its worst level in almost two years while unemployment rose to a three-month high, showing the fragility of seasonal jobs due to the midterm elections.
In real terms, PSA said on Friday (June 6) that there were 2.06 million Filipinos who were either jobless or out of business.
This translated to an unemployment rate of 4.1 per cent, the highest since last January’s 4.3 per cent.
At the same time, the labour force continued to grow and there were 50.74 million people, aged 15 years old and above, who actively looked for work in April.
That was equivalent to a labour force participation rate of 63.7 per cent, beating the preceding month’s 62.9 per cent.
But many of those who found work landed on less secure jobs that might not be paying well.
7.09 million underemployed
Figures showed 7.09 million employed Filipinos still had to look for additional jobs and working hours to augment their income, putting the underemployment rate at 14.6 per cent.
That was the highest proportion of underemployed individuals since the 15.9 per cent recorded in July 2023.
At the same time, the share of wage and salary workers—a proxy for good quality jobs—slightly shrank to 63.2 per cent in April from 63.4 per cent in March.
“The increased unemployment and underemployment are indications of a slowly declining economy especially as election expenditures have winded down toward the end of April,” said Leonardo Lanzona, a labour economist at Ateneo de Manila University.
“While employment may seem high especially in Metro Manila in the early months of the year, these were seasonal and contractual in nature. In the other regions, jobs may seem more regular, but these are mostly primary forms of occupations such as those found in agriculture,” he said.
Addressing unemployment
Moving forward, Lanzona said the government should do more to boost the local labour market, which is facing disruptions from digital transformation, climate change and global value chain movements.
“This trend will continue unless the government steps up to implement an effective high productivity jobs policy or undertake a massive training programme to address the disruptions caused by external and internal factors,” he said.
For its part, the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DepDev) said the government will continue promoting measures that improve the productivity of domestic industries, particularly those that generate higher-quality jobs to enhance the resilience of the labor market amid external uncertainties.
“Attracting more investments to generate higher-quality and better-paying jobs, particularly in manufacturing and higher-value-added services, and expanding into new markets is essential to broadening our economy and opening up more job opportunities for Filipino workers,” the DepDev said in a statement. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
