The Duterte administration will continue to create more jobs even as the country’s adult joblessness rate decelerated in the first quarter of 2019, the Palace said Wednesday.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement after the Social Weather Stations reported that an estimated 9.4 million Filipino adults or 19.7 percent of the Filipino workforce were unemployed in March 2019.
“This marks the second consecutive quarter where there has been a decrease in the proportion of adults in the labor force who are jobless. The 19.7 percent in March 2019 is 1.4 points below the 21.1 percent (est. 9.0 million adults) in December 2018, and 2.3 points below the 22 percent (est. 9.8 million adults) in September 2018,” the pollster said.
The SWS said adult joblessness consists of those seeking jobs for the first time, those who voluntarily left their old jobs, and those who lost their jobs due to economic circumstances beyond their control or termed as “retrenched.”
SWS said the 19.7 percent figure consisted of 9.4 percent (est. 4.5 million adults) who voluntarily left their jobs, 7.6 percent (3.6 million adults) retrenched, and 2.7 percent (1.3 million adults) first-time job seekers.
“The 7.6 percent who were retrenched consisted of 5.6 percent (2.7 million adults) whose contracts ended and no longer renewed, 1.4 percent (680,000 adults) who got laid off, and 0.5 percent (261,000 adults) whose previous employer closed operations,” it said.
In geographical terms, adult joblessness was at 21 percent of the labor force (1.5 million adults) in Metro Manila, 21 percent (4.6 million) in Balance of Luzon, 18 percent (1.5 million adults) in the Visayas, and 17 percent (1.8 million) in Mindanao.
“In Metro Manila, there was a six-point decrease in adult joblessness, from 27 percent in December last year to 21 percent in March 2019. This is the first in five quarters where there has been a decrease in adult joblessness in the capital,” SWS said.
In Mindanao, adult joblessness decreased by nine points, from 26 percent (2.7 million adults) in December to 17 percent in March.
On the other hand, it increased by two points from 19 percent (3.4 million adults) in December to 21 percent in March.
In the Visayas, adult joblessness increased by two points from 16 percent (1.2 million adults) last December to 18 percent in March.
The SWS also found out that adult joblessness has been consistently higher among women than among men.
“In March 2019, it was 30 percent (6.0 million adults) among women members of the labor force while it was 12 percent (est. 3.4 million) among men. The labor force participation rate is also lower among adult women at 59.8 percent, compared to 82.9 percent among adult men,” it said.
It was also consistently highest among the 18 to 24-year-olds compared to other age groups.
“The March 2019 survey found joblessness at 46 percent (2.1 million adults) among this age group, followed by 27 percent (3.0 million adults) among the 25 to 34-year-olds, 18 percent (2.0 million adults) among 35-44-year-olds, and 11percent (2.2 million adults) among those aged 45 years and above,” it added.
The same survey found that adult joblessness is “slightly higher in urban areas at 21 percent (4.1 million adults) than in rural areas at 19 percent (5.2 million adults).”
Aside from adult joblessness, the SWS also revealed that net optimism on job availability was at “very high.”
SWS described optimism on job availability as the Filipinos’ outlook that there will be more jobs in the next 12 months. Pessimism, on the other hand, is the peoples’ outlook that there will be fewer jobs next year.
Even though optimism fell by two points to 50 percent and pessimism rose by 1 point to 13 percent respectively this March, SWS said the resulting net optimism on job availability remains very high.
In a statement, the Palace said President Rodrigo Duterte considers labor as one of the engines that will boost the country’s growth and development.
“We remain committed in creating jobs by attracting more foreign investments and promoting good governance as we look forward to welcoming more Filipinos in the workforce,” Panelo said.
The survey, conducted from March 28 to 31, 2019, used face-to-face interviews of 1,440 adults nationwide. It has sampling error margins of ±2.6 percent for national percentages, and ±5 percent each for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
