Unemployment decreased further in October to 3.3 million from a record-high 7.2 million last April as the economy slowly recovers from the crisis brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa reported Thursday that the unemployment rate of 8.7% was recorded in October. This is equivalent to 3.8 million adult Filipinos without jobs or a source of income during the period.
“[Nasa] 3.8 milyong Pilipino na nasa labor force ay walang trabaho o negosyo nitong nakaraang October 2020. Ito ay mas mataas ng 1.8 milyon kaysa sa bilang noong October 2019 na nasa 2.0 milyong indibidwal na walang trabaho o negosyo,” Mapa said, citing the results of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) July 2020 Labor Force Survey.
In July, PSA reported the country’s unemployment rate rose to 17.7 percent or equivalent to 7.3 million Filipinos displaced due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Last April, the unemployment rate was way too high compared with 5.3% in the January 2020 survey and 5.1% in April 2019.
SWS: Unemployment in July is at 45%
In August, Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed 45 percent of adult Filipinos were jobless in July amid the continuous increase of COVID-19 cases and implementation of community quarantines in the country.
The survey was conducted from July 3 to 6, with 1,555 respondents. Results showed unemployment increased by 28 points from 17.5 percent in December 2019, and a new record-high since the 34.4 percent in March 2012.
According to SWS, the estimated numbers of jobless Filipino adults were 27.3 million in July 2020 and 7.9 million in December 2019.
The July 2020 SWS Survey found that the adult Labor Force Participation Rate is 86.4 percent for an estimated 60 million adults. It is lower than the 68.7 percent in December 2019 for an estimated 45.5 million adults.
Jobless were defined as “those who voluntarily left their old jobs, are seeking jobs for the first time, or lost their jobs due to economic circumstances beyond their control.”
According to the survey, half of the 42 percent with no job/livelihood (one out of five or 21% of adult Filipinos) lost their job/livelihood during the COVID-19 pandemic. The other 21 percent lost their job/livelihood before the health crisis.
The remaining percentage either had a job/livelihood at the time of the survey at 47 percent or never had a job/livelihood before at 11 percent.