Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) – An estimated 12.2 million adult Filipinos were jobless in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, as the country continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is a slight decline from the 12.7 million unemployed Filipinos recorded in last quarter of 2020.
“The survey conducted from April 28 to May 2, 2021 found joblessness at 25.8% of the adult labor force. This is 1.5 points lower than the 27.3% in November 2020, but still 8.3 points higher than the pre-pandemic level of 17.5% in December 2019,” the SWS said.
The SWS added that the jobless adults are those who voluntarily left their old jobs, those looking for work for the first time, and those who lost their jobs “due to economic circumstances beyond their control.”
The poll also showed joblessness dropped in Balance Luzon from 32.6% in November 2020 to 24.2% in May 2021, and in Metro Manila from 37.8% to 30.8%.
However, joblessness rose in the Visayas from 19.1% to 28.7%, and in Mindanao from 17.0% to 23.0%.
“The 1.5-point decline in the national joblessness rate was due to decreases of 9 points in Balance Luzon and 7 points in Metro Manila, offset by increases of 10 points in the Visayas and 6 points in Mindanao,” the SWS noted.
The SWS also said joblessness among women fell from 34.1% last year to 29.0% this year. There was no significant increase in unemployment among men, from 22.2% to 23.6%.
“The resulting women-men joblessness gap of 5 points is the lowest since March 2004, when the women-men joblessness gap was just 3 points.”
July 2020 saw a record-high joblessness rate of 45.5%, or equivalent to around 27.3 million adults.
The latest SWS survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide. The sampling error margins are ±3% for national percentages and ±6% for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
