Unemployment eases to 5.5% in April

MANILA, Philippines — The unemployment situation eased a bit in April although more Filipinos are still seeking full time work or better quality jobs, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday.

Results of the April 2018 Labor Force Survey (LFS) showed the country’s unemployment rate dipped to 5.5 percent from 5.7 percent in April 2017. This is the lowest recorded rate for all the April rounds of the LFS in the past decade.

Accordingly, the employment rate grew to 94.5 percent last April from 94.3 percent the previous year, translating to 40.9 million Filipinos employed.

The pool of potential workers, however, narrowed as seen in the lower labor force participation rate of 60.9 percent in April 2018 from 61.4 percent last year. This was derived from a labor force population of 71.01 million Filipinos aged 15 and above.

Employment grew partly because of increased hiring in the construction sector, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said.

“Employment grew partly due to increased infrastructure spending as the Department of Public Works and Highways’ road projects and rehabilitation of public school facilities are already underway nationwide,” said NEDA officer-in-charge Jose Miguel de la Rosa.

The industry sector registered 605,000 jobs as of the April LFS round, up by 8.1 percent year-on-year. The construction subsector is the biggest contributor to employment in this sector, generating 468,000 jobs, the most number of jobs created among subsectors during the period, NEDA said.

As employment rose, so did those looking for additional hours of work or additional jobs, indicating the need for more quality employment. The underemployment rate in April 2018 rose to 17 percent from 16.1 percent the previous year, corresponding to 6.9 million workers.

NEDA said this was driven mainly by the increase of those who are already employed full time but wanting more work.

NEDA Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon noted, however, the increase in the percentage of wage earners during the reference period. They made up 50.3 percent of the total employed in April 2018 versus 48.8 percent in April 2017.

“The quality of employment is improving as the number of wage earners grow,” she said.

Edillon said underemployment would significantly decrease if the employability of most workers can be improved.

The continuous implementation of the Build Build Build program, she said, will continue to create more jobs, she added.