SWS poll shows most Pinoys think they’re worse off

MAJORITY of Filipinos felt their quality of life worsened in the past year, with 82% identifying themselves as “losers” amid a coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll.

Only 6% said they were “gainers,” while the remaining 11% felt no change, it said in a report posted on its website on Wednesday night.

The poll resulted in a net gainer score of -76, which the polling body classified as “catastrophic.”

“The September 2020 score joins SWS’s worst trends in survey history, having recorded -78 in May and -72 in July during the COVID-19 crisis,” SWS said.

“The only other time the score reached a catastrophic level was in June 2008 (-50), during rice and oil price hikes,” it added. SWS started doing the quality of life poll in 1983.

The net gainer scores in all areas were worse than the July results. Mindanao scored 9 points lower at -74 in September 2020, while Visayas dropped 5 points to -80. Metro Manila worsened by 4 points to -76 and the rest of Luzon fell by a point to -75.

Results also showed net gainer scores were worse for families experiencing hunger and for those who did not graduate from college.

“Adults from families that were involuntarily hungry in the last three months had a higher losers score than those that were not,” SWS said. The get gainer score among those who were hungry was -84 against the -72 score among those who were not.

The poll also showed non-college graduates found their quality of life significantly worse than those who graduated from college, but hardly varied between jobless adults and those who were employed.

The net gainer score of college graduates was -64 against the -72 to -83 scores of those with less education, while those who were employed and unemployed scored -73 and -79, respectively.

SWS interviewed 1,249 people by phone from Sept. 17 to 20 for the poll, which had an error margin of ±3 points. — Charmaine A. Tadalan