Recent typhoons that hit the country led to lost jobs in the agriculture sector and caused the rise in the unemployment rate in the third quarter, the Department of Labor and Employment said.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Typhoons “Ompong” and “Rosita” affected hundreds of farmers in the months of August, September and October, considered as typhoon months.
The jobless rate thus rose to 5.1 percent for the third quarter of the year, up slightly from the 5 percent rate in October 2017, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Labor Force Survey.
The employment rate also declined to 94.9 percent, down from 95 percent last year, the survey revealed.
Of the 71.886-million working-age population of 15 years and older, the unemployment rate stood at 5.1 percent in October, from 5.0 percent in the same month last year.
This translates to 2.202 million of unemployed Filipinos in the labor force against 41.3 million working citizens., compared with 2.185 million in the previous period, DOLE noted.
Regions with the lowest employment rates were Ilocos Region (93.3 percent) and Calabarzón (93.4 percent), which wer also the most affected by typhoons, the PSA added.
In a radio interview, Bello said that summing up the figures from the first to third quarter, the unemployment rate actually went down, as unemployment rose only in the 3rd quarter.
The “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program of the government, Bello said, is helping address the unemployment rate.
With the start of the “Ber” season, many establishments, particularly retail stores, have hired additional workers, the labor chief added.
Even as unemployment has inched up, the ranks of those wanting more work thinned, he said.
For the year, the country’s unemployment rate has averaged 5.3 percent, at the upper end of the 4.7 percent to 5.3 percent target set for 2018 under the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022.
The quality of available jobs, DOLE noted, has improved as the underemployment rate—the proportion of those already working but still looking for more work or longer working hours—decreased to 13.3 percent from 15.9 percent in the same comparative period.
This is equivalent to 5.502 million Filipinos, down from 6.616 million a year ago.
In a statement, the National Economic and Development Authority said: “This is equivalent to 1.1 million less underemployed workers from last year’s 6.6 million. This is the lowest underemployment rate recorded for all October rounds since 2006 (20.3 percent).”
“This signals that the quality of work is improving even outside the National Capital Region (NCR). We attributed this to expanding employment opportunities and the approval of nominal increases in regional wages supported by labor productivity improvements,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia added in the NEDA statement.
Underemployment rate in areas outside NCR declined significantly to 14.6 percent in October 2018 from last year’s 17 percent, which is also the lowest in over a decade, NEDA said. Underemployment in the NCR improved to 4.8 percent in October 2018 against last year’s 8.6 percent.
The percentage of “discouraged job seekers” also declined to 11.5 percent, better than the 12 percent target for 2018.
“However, of the total youth population, 19.9 percent is neither in employment nor in education in 2018, but still falling within the PDP target of 19.5 to 21.5 percent,” NEDA noted.
Around 826,000 new jobs were generated in 2018, less than the government’s annual target of 900,000 to 1.1 million, the agency noted.