Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 28) — The number of unemployed persons in the Philippines fell slightly in the last quarter of 2021, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.
Conducted from Dec. 12 to 16, the survey showed that the adult joblessness rate stood at 24.7% of the adult labor force, or 11 million Filipinos.
The latest number, released on Thursday, is lower than the 11.9 million recorded in the third quarter of last year.
The poll body defines the labor force as adults aged 18 years old and above currently with a job and those looking for one.
The jobless, meanwhile, consist of those who voluntarily left their old jobs, are seeking jobs for the first time, or lost their jobs due to economic circumstances beyond their control.
The SWS recorded the highest joblessness rate of 34% in Metro Manila. This was followed by Balance Luzon at 29%, Mindanao at 18%, and the Visayas at 17%.
“The resulting 25.7% average for 2021 is 11.7 points below the record-high 37.4% average for 2020 but still 5.9 points above the 19.8% average of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic,” the SWS said.
It noted that joblessness reached a “catastrophic” level of 45.5% in July 2020, the first few months after the Philippine government imposed hard lockdowns due to COVID threats.
The survey also found out that involuntary hunger — being hungry and not having anything to eat — among families of the jobless Filipinos went up to 22.4% against the third quarter’s 16.3%.
Joblessness among women also decreased to 31.2% versus the previous quarter’s 32.3%. However, the rate rose among men to 20.5% in the last three months of 2021 from 19.3%.
Joblessness in urban areas declined to 26.6%, while it rose in rural areas to 22.8%.
The latest survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,440 adults across the country, with sampling error margins at ±2.6% for national percentages and ±5.2% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
