Philippine unemployment rate hits 4.1% in April
STILL A LOT WITHOUTWORK Job seekers continue to look for regular or better jobs at job fairs in Manila. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The country’s unemployment rate remained stable at below the psychological level of 5 percent, prompting economic planners to focus on job quality.
In its regular survey of 44,536 households, the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) said the jobless rate was at 4.1 percent, higher than the April 2024 unemployment rate of 4.0 percent.
The figure brought the average unemployment rate from January to April to 4 percent, higher than the 3.8 full-year average for 2024, but better than the 5.1 percent full-year jobless rate in 2019.
PSA data showed that unemployment was worst in 2020 when the jobless rate hit 10.3 percent, but it slowed down to 7.8 percent in 2021, 5.4 percent in 2022, 4.4 percent in 2023 and 3.8 percent in 2024.
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It has since stabilized at below 5 percent, but planners are concerned that, as they predicted, job quality would eventually suffer.
In its latest report, job quality in April hit its worst level in almost two years while unemployment rose to a three-month high, showing the fragility of seasonal jobs due to the midterm elections.
In real terms, PSA said on Friday that there were 2.06 million Filipinos who were either jobless or out of business.
This translated to an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, the highest since last January’s 4.3 percent.
At the same time, the labor force continued to grow and there were 50.74 million people, aged 15 years old and above, who actively looked for work in April. That was equivalent to a labor force participation rate of 63.7 percent, beating the preceding month’s 62.9 percent.
But many of those who found work landed on less secure jobs that might not be paying well.
7.09M underemployed
Figures showed 7.09 million employed Filipinos still had to look for additional jobs and working hours to augment their income, putting the underemployment rate at 14.6 percent.
That was the highest proportion of underemployed individuals since the 15.9 percent recorded in July 2023. At the same time, the share of wage and salary workers—a proxy for good quality jobs—slightly shrank to 63.2 percent in April from 63.4 percent in March.
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“The increased unemployment and underemployment are indications of a slowly declining economy especially as election expenditures have winded down toward the end of April,” said Leonardo Lanzona, a labor economist at Ateneo de Manila University.
“While employment may seem high especially in Metro Manila in the early months of the year, these were seasonal and contractual in nature. In the other regions, jobs may seem more regular, but these are mostly primary forms of occupations such as those found in agriculture,” he said.
Addressing unemployment
Moving forward, Lanzona said the government should do more to boost the local labor market, which is facing disruptions from digital transformation, climate change and global value chain movements.
“This trend will continue unless the government steps up to implement an effective high productivity jobs policy or undertake a massive training program to address the disruptions caused by external and internal factors,” he said.
For its part, the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DepDev) said the government will continue promoting measures that improve the productivity of domestic industries, particularly those that generate higher-quality jobs to enhance the resilience of the labor market amid external uncertainties.
“Attracting more investments to generate higher-quality and better-paying jobs, particularly in manufacturing and higher-value-added services, and expanding into new markets is essential to broadening our economy and opening up more job opportunities for Filipino workers,” the DepDev said in a statement.
