The country’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 percent in May 2023 from 6 percent a year ago and 4.5 percent in April 2023 as 2.18 million more jobs were created during the month, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Friday.
National statistician and civil registrar general Dennis Mapa said in an online briefing this was the second-lowest unemployment rate since April 2005.
“The May 2023 unemployment rate was the second lowest since April 2005, following the 4.2 percent unemployment rate in November 2022,” Mapa said.
“2.18 million jobs were added for the month and of that number, close to one million were salaried and wage workers, meaning they have permanent jobs…,” Mapa said.
The employment rate in May 2023 was estimated at 95.7 percent, which was higher than the reported employment rate in May 2022 at 94.0 percent and in April 2023 at 95.5 percent. In terms of magnitude, the number of employed persons was posted at 48.26 million in May 2023,
higher than the reported number of employed persons in the same period last year at 46.08 million.
Given the favorable labor market performance, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the government would continue to push for and implement game-changing reforms to improve the country’s business investment climate, especially for foreign investors, and help in sustaining current labor market gains.
“To achieve our near and medium-term targets, it is important that the government remains committed to fostering a favorable investment climate to address critical constraints to high-quality job creation,” he said.
Moreover, Balisacan added that establishing an enabling regulatory environment to improve the ease of doing business and encourage innovation remained as top priorities to attract investors who have the technology and resources to bring in high-quality jobs.
The Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) was registered at 65.3 percent, which was higher than the reported LFPR in May 2022 (64.0 percent) and in April 2023 (65.1 percent). In terms of magnitude, there were 50.43 million individuals aged 15 years old and over who were either employed or unemployed in May 2023.
The average hours worked in a week by an employed person in May 2023 was 39.3 hours, which was slightly lower than the estimate in May 2022
at 39.8 hours per week. However, this was higher than the average hours worked in April 2023 at 36.9 hours per week.
The number of underemployed persons or employed 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 was reported at 5.66 million of the 48.26 million employed persons,
translating to an underemployment rate of 11.7 percent in May 2023.
The underemployment rate in May 2023 was the second lowest since April 2005 with March 2023 underemployment rate of 11.2 percent as the
lowest.
By sector, services continued its dominance of all the sectors having the largest share at 58.8 percent of the total employed population in
May 2023. The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 24.3 percent and 16.9 percent of the total employed persons, respectively.
The top five sub-sectors with the highest year-on-year increase in the number of employed persons in May 2023 were agriculture and forestry
(1.25 million); accommodation and food service activities (398,000); other service activities (365,000); fishing and aquaculture (351,000);
and arts, entertainment, and recreation (305,000).
On the other hand, the top five sectors that exhibited drop in the number of employed persons from May 2022 to May 2023 were wholesale
and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (-781,000); construction (-274,000); manufacturing (-253,000); water supply;
sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (-78,000); and information and communication (-51,000).
Wage and salary workers continued to account for the largest share of employed persons with 60.5 percent of the total employed persons in
May 2023. This was followed by self-employed persons without any paid employee at 28.1 percent and unpaid family workers at 9.2 percent.
Employer in own family-operated farm or business had the lowest share at 2.2 percent.
Government data show the country’s unemployment rate averaged 8.59 percent from 1986 until 2022, reaching an all-time high of 17.60
percent in June of 2020 at the height of the strict lockdowns during the pandemic.