Jobless data improves in June - PSA

Metro Manila, Philippines - Fewer people were out of work in June from May, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Wednesday, Aug. 6.

It said the unemployment rate declined to 3.7 percent in June from 3.9 percent in May, equivalent to 1.95 million jobless people from 2.03 million month-on-month.

“Kaya siya unemployed kahit na available siyang magtrabaho kasi pagod na daw siya, ‘tired and believe no work available.’ So dito yung mga discouraged workers,” Deputy National Statistician Divina del Prado said of the reason for half of the unemployed people.

[Translation: The reason for them being unemployed even if they were available to work was because they were tired. They said: “tired and believe no work available.” They are discouraged workers.]

Year-on-year, however, the PSA said the unemployment rate was higher than the 3.1 percent in June 2024.

The top four sub-sectors with the largest month-on-month decline were accommodation and food service activities, agriculture and forestry, public administration and defense; compulsory social security, and education.

The top fifth sub-sector that shed workers was the “arts, entertainment and recreation.”

“Ang pinakamalaki dito yung gambling and betting activities. So year on year, bumaba siya ng 209,000,” Deputy National Statistician Divina del Prado said.

[Translation: The largest share was from gambling and betting activities. It also went down by 209,000 year-on-year.]

The PSA said the employment rate went up to 96.3 percent in June from 96.1 percent in May. This meant there were 50.47 million people with work in June.

The underemployment rate went down to 11.4 percent in June from 13.1 percent in May. The June figure translated to 5.76 million Filipinos looking for more working hours or an additional job.

“Over time, our employment rate is increasing, but I think we need to improve pa ‘yung [the] quality of work because we see in the underemployment rate na hindi pa nag-improve [it has not yet improved],” Del Prado said.

According to the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, the underemployed are persons who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or in an additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours. It is resorted to in the desire to earn more.