UNEMPLOYMENT rate in the Philippines has decreased to 6.4 percent in January 2022 from the 6.6 percent in December 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Friday, March 18, 2022.
Undersecretary Dennis Mapa of the National Statistician and Civil Registrar General said in his report that the 6.4 percent unemployment rate translates to 2.93 million unemployed Filipinos, projecting a decline of 1.04 million from the 3.96 million reported in January 2021.
“The number of persons 15 years old and over reported as either employed or unemployed was estimated at 45.94 million in January 2022. This was higher compared to the 45.21 million Filipinos in the labor force in the same period last year,” he said.
In terms of the labor force participation rate (LFPR), Mapa said this remained the same as the January 2021 rate of 60.5 percent.
Employment
The employment situation in the country for the first month of 2022, meanwhile, has improved from 91.2 percent in January 2021 to 93.6 percent this year.
“This estimated rate was also higher than employment rate in the previous quarter’s 92.6 percent,” Mapa said.
In terms of magnitude, he said the number of employed persons increased by 1.77 million from 41.25 million in January 2021 to 43.02 million in January 2022.
Mapa also noted that on average, employed persons worked for 41.8 hours per week in January 2022.
In January 2021, the average hours worked of an employed person was lower at 39.3 hours per week.
“Underemployed persons or employed persons who expressed desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work was accounted at 6.40 million translating to an underemployment rate of 14.9 percent. This was lower than the 16 percent reported in January 2021 but higher than the 14.7 percent reported in December 2021,” Mapa said.
Underemployment
Visible underemployment rate or the proportion of underemployed persons working less than 40 hours in a week was reported at 8.9 percent in January 2022, and this is lower than the 11.0 percent in the same period last year.
“This estimated rate was also lower than the October 2021 and December 2021 estimates at 10.7 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively,” said Mapa.
Invisible underemployment rate, or the proportion of underemployed persons working at least 40 hours in a week, meantime, was estimated at 5.9 percent in January 2022.
This was higher than the reported rate in January 2021 (five percent), October 2021 (5.3 percent) and December 2021 (4.9 percent).
Regions, sex
The PSA also noted that the Cordillera Administrative Region (CRA) registered the highest LFPR at 65 percent in January 2022, while the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) had the lowest at 55.6 percent.
Among the regions, eight posted lower LFPR than the national estimate, namely, Barmm (55.6 percent), Eastern Visayas (58 percent), Bicol (58.4 percent), Central Luzon (58.6 percent), National Capital Region (58.8 percent), Davao Region (59.5 percent), Central Visayas (60 percent), and Zamboanga Peninsula (60 percent).
Mapa said that across regions, eight of the country’s 17 administrative regions posted higher unemployment rates than the 6.4 percent national estimate. These include Central Visayas (eight percent), Bicol (7.8 percent), Barmm (7.5 percent), Calabarzon (7.4 percent), NCR (7.3 percent), Ilocos (7.2 percent), Eastern Visaya (7 percent), and Mimaropa (6.5 percent).
By sex, LFPR was higher among men at 72.9 percent than to women at 48.1 percent in January 2022, the PSA noted.
“Likewise, the employment rate among men was higher at 93.9 percent compared to 93.2 percent among women. However, underemployment rate among men was higher at 16.4 percent than their women counterpart at 12.5 percent,” Mapa said.
Sectors
It was also noted that the services sector continued its dominance over other sectors, having the largest share of employed persons at 58.9 percent.
Primary drivers are the agriculture and the industry sectors that contributed 21.7 percent and 19.3 percent respective share of the 43.02 million employed population.
The year-on-year changes in the number of employed persons from January 2021 to January 2022, showed the top five sub-sectors with the highest increase, namely:
* Manufacturing (490,000)
* Administrative and support service activities (413,000)
* Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (363,000)
* Transportation and storage (225,000)
* Public administration and defense; compulsory social security
(222,000)
In terms of quarter-on-quarter changes in the number of employed persons from October 2021 to January 2022, the top five sub-sectors with the highest increase were:
* Transportation and storage (327,000)
* Manufacturing (304,000)
* Administrative and support service activities (229,000)
* Construction (167,000)
* Other service activities (117,000)
Youth participation
As to the participation of the youth in the labor force, the PSA said 32 percent of the youth are active in January 2022.
“This was lower compared to the estimate in the same period last year at 34.7 percent and in the previous quarter’s 35.7 percent,” Mapa said.
“Similarly, the youth unemployment rate declined by -6.0 percentage points from 19.8 percent in January 2021 to 13.8 percent in the same month of 2022,” he added.
Of the total 5.52 million employed youth in the Philippines, those reported to be underemployed was estimated at 700,000, resulting to youth underemployment rate of 12.7 percent. (LMY)