September unemployment slid to 5% from 5.3% in August: PSA
Unemployment rate in September slid to 5 percent from 5.3 percent in the previous month, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday.
This translates to 2.50 million unemployed Filipinos out of 50.08 million Filipinos who were in the labor force in September. The unemployment rate in September 2021 was higher at 8.9 percent.
The employment rate was estimated at 95 percent, highest since January 2020, in September from 94.7 percent in the previous month.
In September 2021, employment rate was reported at 91.1 percent.
In terms of magnitude, 47.58 million Filipinos were employed in September. This was lower than the number of employed persons in August at 47.87 million but higher than the 43.59 million employed persons in September 2021.
The labor force participation rate (LFPR) in September was registered at 65.2 percent or about 50.08 million individuals who were either employed or unemployed out of the 76.83 million Filipinos aged 15 years and over.
The September LFPR of 65.2 percent was lower than the August LFPR of 66.1 percent but higher than the LFPR reported in September 2021 at 63.3 percent.
The average weekly hours worked by an employed person in September was estimated at 39.6 hours per week. This was lower than the average weekly hours worked in August of 40.5 hours and in the same period last year of 40.2 hours.
Underemployed persons or those employed who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their current job or to have an additional job or to have a new job with longer hours of work was recorded at 7.33 million out of the 47.58 million employed Filipinos in September.
This translates to an underemployment rate of 15.4 percent, which was higher than the reported underemployment rate in August (14.7 percent) and in September last year (14.2 percent).
Among men and women, the LFPR in September was higher among men (75.5 percent) than women (54.8 percent).
Employment rate for men was also higher at 95.5 percent compared with that of women at 94.4 percent. Men had lower unemployment rate at 4.5 percent than their women counterpart at 5.6 percent.
On the other hand, men had higher underemployment rate at 16.6 percent than women at 13.7 percent.
Across sectors, services consistently dominated the labor market. In September, it registered the largest share of 58.9 percent to the total employed population of 47.58 million.
Agriculture and the industry sectors accounted for 22.5 percent and 18.6 percent of the employed persons, respectively.
The top five sub-sectors with the highest year-on-year change in the number of employed persons in September were: Manufacturing (1.09 million);
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (852,000) ; Agriculture and forestry (599, 000); Accommodation and food service activities (482,000); and Transportation and storage (470, 000).
In contrast, the top five subsectors with the largest drop in terms of employed persons from September 2021 to September 2022 were: Construction (-394,000); Fishing and aquaculture (-138, 000); Arts, entertainment, and recreation (-80, 000); Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply (-46,000); and Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (-33, 000).
i. Youth LFPR in Septemberdecreased to 36.7 percent, from 38.0 percent in August.
Similarly, youth employment rate decreased to 88.5 percent in September, from 89.2 percent in the previous month. Of the total 6.54 million employed youth, 807,000 were underemployed, translating to youth underemployment rate of 12.4 percent.
Youth unemployment rate increased to 11.5 percent, from 10.8 percent in August. PSA
