THE country’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.5 percent in October 2022 from 7.4 percent in the same period last year.
This translates to 2.24 million jobless Filipinos in October, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022.
Employment rate, on the other hand, increased to 95.5 percent, the highest record since the start of the pandemic. This translates to an employment level of 47.1 million in October 2022, 3.3 million higher than in the same period last year.
“The country’s sustained recovery of the labor market backs our confidence that our policies and interventions to reinvigorate our economy are working,” said National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan in a statement.
“Our move to finally open face-to-face classes at full capacity has paved the way for us to immediately address the learning losses from the pandemic—this is a precursor to a workforce that demonstrates competence and high productivity. Also, with children back in school, parents at home—especially mothers—are also able to pursue more income opportunities,” Balisacan said.
Much of the increase in employment came from the services and industry sectors.
Meanwhile, the agriculture sector posted employment loss, particularly in agriculture and forestry because of the tropical cyclones that entered the country in October 2022. However, this contraction in the sector was slightly moderated by fishing and aquaculture, which recorded 34,000 additional employments during the period.
“While the employment numbers have improved, we recognize that we need to expand efforts towards creating more and high-quality employment by improving workforce employability. We need to do this if we really want to pursue economic transformation,” Balisacan said