THE LATEST official labor data showed the jobless rate shot up to double-digits, as millions of Filipinos became unemployed, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported earlier this morning.
Preliminary results of the PSA’s April 2020 round of the Labor Force Survey put the country’s unemployment rate at 17.7%, up from the 5.1% recorded in the same survey round last year. This was the highest since the government adopted new definitions for the LFS in 2005.
This is equivalent to around 7.25 million jobless Filipinos, up by 4.98 million from 2.27 million in April 2019.
Likewise, the underemployment rate – the proportion of those already working, but still looking for more work or longer working hours – worsened to 18.9% from 13.4%. This translates to 6.39 million underemployed Filipinos, up from 5.61 million previously. Among the April rounds of the LFS, this year’s result was the highest since the 19.2% underemployment logged in April 2013.
The size of the labor force was approximately 41.02 million out of the 73.7 million Filipinos aged at least 15 years old, yielding a labor force participation rate (LFPR) of 55.6% from 61.3% in April 2019, equivalent to 44.02 million Filipinos. According to the PSA, the latest LFPR was the “lowest in the history of the Philippine labor market.”
The employment rate, which is the proportion of the employed to the total labor force, dropped to 82.3% in April from 94.9% the previous year. This is equivalent to approximately 33.76 million Filipinos, 41.76 million fewer than the 41.76 million employed in April 2019.
By major economic sector, services still made up the largest share of the employed population. In April, the employment share in that sector shrank to 57.1% from 58.9%.
Industry accounted for 17% of employed Filipinos in April, down from last year’s 19.4%.
Agriculture employed 25.9% of the workers, up from 21.7% previously.
As of the April LFS round, there were 19.28 million people employed in services, down by 5.34 million from 24.61 million in April 2019. For industry, there were 5.74 million employed in the sector, down from 8.08 million. Agriculture, meanwhile, has 8.74 million – down from 9.06 million. – Marissa Mae M. Ramos
