Nearly 1,000 firms laid off workers

MANILA, Philippines — Nearly a thousand business enterprises have laid off their workers in just the first nine days of August due to the economic toll exacted by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on their operations.

The latest job displacement report of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) showed that as of Aug. 9 a total of 944 establishments have reported to have let go of their combined 16,134 workers as they downsize or shutter their operations.

This means that for this month an average of 1,792 workers were already being laid off daily, higher than the daily average of 1,686 recorded in June when the most number of layoffs this year was recorded.

To date, 157,705 workers from 7,759 businesses have lost their jobs due to retrenchment or permanent closure of their workplace.

By geographical area, Metro Manila had the most number of displaced workers at 75,178, followed by Calabarzon at 32,421 and Central Luzon at 17,368.

The National Capital Region and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal were placed again on lockdown last week to provide health workers a breather especially as COVID-19 cases in these areas had continued to rise.

The reimposition of the two-week modified enhanced community quarantine limited the operations of businesses to only essential services to control the movement of people.

Dole said the administrative and support service sector continues to be the most-hit industry as it accounted for almost a quarter of all displaced workers or 36,578.

There are now a total of 83,135 businesses that have temporarily closed down, affecting at least 2 million workers.