Numbers of jobless Pinoys down in Q3 – SWS

MANILA, Philippines - The number of unemployed Filipino adults dropped by 3.3 percentage points or around 1.8 million in the third quarter of the year, according to the latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The survey, taken from Sept. 24 to 27, also found more Filipinos who are hopeful there will be an increase in available jobs in 2017, from 39 percent in April to 44 percent in September.

SWS recorded the country’s adult joblessness rate at 18.4 percent (about 8.2 million) in September, from 21.7 percent (an estimated 10 million) in June.

The third quarter unemployment rate was also 3.5 points below the 2015 average of 21.9 percent, it said.

According to the SWS, the jobless Filipinos consisted of those who voluntarily left their old jobs at eight percent (around 3.6 million); those who involuntarily lost their jobs at 7.4 percent (an estimated 3.3 million) and those who were first-time job seekers at 3.1 percent (about 1.4 million).

The adult joblessness data refer to the population of adults in the labor force, including those who have a job at present and those without a job at present and looking for one.

The proportion of those who resigned or left their old jobs voluntarily fell by 2.3 points from 10.3 percent to eight percent.

Those who were retrenched, however, rose by 0.7 point, from 6.7 percent to 7.4 percent.

Of the 7.4 percent who were retrenched, 4.8 of them were workers whose contracts had ended; 1.8 percent were laid off and 0.7 percent were workers whose employers had closed operations.

The number of first-time job seekers, meanwhile, fell by 1.7 points, from 4.7 percent to 3.1 percent.

The survey also showed that fewer women had become jobless in the third quarter of 2016.

Joblessness among women fell by seven points from 33.1 percent to 26.1 percent, the lowest since the 25.6 percent recorded in September 2011.

Among men, adult unemployment hardly changed, from 12.7 percent in June to 12.9 percent in September. It has been below 20 percent since March 2014, after falling from 21.2 percent in December 2014, the SWS noted.

Joblessness also went down among those in the age bracket 25 to 34 years.

Adult joblessness fell by 8.9 points among 25-34-year-olds, from 29.2 percent in June to 20.3 percent in September.

It fell by 4.8 points among 45-year-olds and above, from 14.4 percent to 9.7 percent.

It hardly changed among 35-44-year-olds, from 15.2 percent to 14.6 percent.

However, it rose by 3.6 points among 18-24-year-olds, from 51.1 percent in June to 54.8 percent in September.