Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 4) — The Social Weather Stations (SWS) said joblessness among adult Filipinos dropped in the fourth quarter of 2019, settling at 17.5 percent.
The pollster’s latest survey released Tuesday said this was equivalent to 7.9 million jobless adult Filipinos in the last three months of 2019, compared to 10 million in the third quarter (21.5 percent).
The SWS said those considered jobless were the 17.5 percent who were jobless in December 2019 consisted of 8.1 percent who voluntarily left their old jobs, 3.5 percent first-time job seekers, and 5.9 percent who were retrenched.
“Those who were retrenched consisted of 3.7 percent whose contract ended and was no longer renewed, 1.3 percent who were laid off, and 0.9 percent whose previous employer closed operations,” added SWS.
Joblessness was down significantly in Metro Manila (15.0 percent from 24.5) and the rest of Luzon (17.3 percent from 25 percent), however, numbers were up in the Visayas and Mindanao (15.7 percent and 20.7 percent from 11.8 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively).
Overall, the SWS said joblessness in urban areas was at its lowest in 15 years.
The SWS report also noted there were more jobless adult women than men.
“The fall in adult joblessness among men widened the Female – Male Joblessness Gap (% jobless among women minus % jobless among men). From 16.8 percent in September, this rose to 22.5 percent in December. This is the highest since the 26.1 percent in December 2016,” said the SWS.
Of the 1,200 adults surveyed from December 13-16, 2019, 53 percent said they were more optimistic of more jobs being available in the next 12 months.
“This gives a Job Optimism score of +40, classified by SWS as Excellent,” said the pollster.
