Employment rate was placed at 94.2 percent in March 2022, it was the highest since April 2020 but lower than the registered employment rate in January 2020 at 94.7 percent.
In terms of magnitude, an increase of 1.50 million employed persons was accounted from February 2022 (45.48 million) to March 2022 (46.98 million). Likewise, a total 1.64 million employed individuals were added to the employed population of 45.33 million in March 2021.
The unemployment rate in the country improved in March 2022 (posted at 5.8 percent) vis-à-vis the estimates a month ago (6.4 percent) and in the same period a year ago (7.1 percent). About 2.87 million were unemployed in March 2022, down from the 3.13 million in February 2022 and 3.44 million in March 2021.
The country’s Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in March 2022 continued to pick up at 65.4 percent, highest since the start of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The LFPR in March 2022 was higher by 0.4 percentage point from the 65.0 percent LFPR reported for the same month in 2021, and higher by 1.6 percentage points from the estimate a month ago.
Employment rate at 94.2 percent in March 2022
Underemployment rate in March 2022 was registered at 15.8 percent, lower than the estimated underemployment rate in the same month of 2021 at 16.2 percent but it is higher compared to the 14.0 percent estimate a month ago. Around 7.42 million out of the total 46.98 million employed persons were underemployed in March 2022. Underemployed persons are those who expressed the 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.
Visible underemployment rate or the proportion of underemployed persons working less than 40 hours in a week was reported at 10.2 percent in March 2022, lower than the 10.9 percent reported in March 2021 but it is higher than the reported 9.2 percent in February 2022.
On the other hand, invisible underemployment rate or the proportion of underemployed persons working at least 40 hours in a week was placed at 5.6 percent in March 2022. This estimate is higher compared to the 5.3 percent reported in March last year.
By sex, male LFPR was estimated at 76.9 percent while female LFPR was 53.7 percent. It was likewise higher among males at 94.7 percent than their female counterpart at 93.6 percent. Further, underemployment rate among males (17.5%) was higher than females (13.3%). The unemployment rate among females was reportedly higher at 6.4 percent of the 20.38 million total female labor force than their male counterpart at 5.3 percent of the 29.47 million male labor force.
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