The country’s unemployment rate in February 2022 remained the same as the 6.4 percent reported a month ago. This is lower than the unemployment rate of 8.8 percent in the same month in 2021.
In terms of magnitude, this is translated to 3.13 million unemployed individuals 15 years old and over. This is lower by 1.06 million unemployed Filipinos compared to February 2021.
The Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in February 2022 was estimated at 63.8 percent, higher than the LFPR in January 2022 (60.5%) and February 2021 (63.5%). The 63.8 percent LFPR in February 2022 is translated to 48.61 million Filipinos who are either employed or unemployed out of the 76.15 million Filipinos aged 15 years old and over.
The number of employed persons increased by 2.33 million from 43.15 million in February 2021 to 45.48 million in the same month this year. Employment rate in February this year was placed at 93.6 percent, higher than the 91.2 percent reported for the same period last year.
Employed persons worked on an average of 40.8 hours per week in February 2022. This is higher than the reported 38.9 hours in February 2021 but lower than the recorded 41.8 hours in January 2022.
Underemployed persons in February 2022 were accounted at 6.38 million of the total 45.48 million employed individuals. This translates to an underemployment rate of 14.0 percent. Underemployed persons are persons 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.
Unemployment rate in February 2022 remains at 6.4 percent
Visible underemployment rate or the proportion of underemployed persons working less than 40 hours in a week was reported at 9.2 percent in February 2022, higher than the reported 8.9 percent in January 2022 but lower than the 12.5 percent reported in February 2021.
On the other hand, invisible underemployment rate or the proportion of underemployed persons working at least 40 hours in a week was placed at 4.8 percent in February 2022, lower than the estimated invisible underemployment rate in February 2021 (5.7%) and in January 2022 (5.9%).
By sex, men had higher LFPR at 75.7 percent than women at 51.8 percent. Further, men had higher employment rate (94.1%) than women (92.8%). Moreover, underemployment rate was higher among men at 15.2 percent compared to 12.2 percent among women.
By broad industry group, the services sector continued to lead all sectors having the largest share of employed persons with 58.2 percent. The share of employed persons in agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 23.9 percent and 17.9 percent, respectively.
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