FILE PHOTO Workers check the inventory through a monitor attached to their forklifts inside a newly built product distribution warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna. AFP PHOTO/JES AZNAR (Photo by JES AZNAR / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — The unemployment rate in the country slightly increased to 6.6 percent—or 3.27 million Filipinos—in December 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Thursday.
The PSA said the December 2021 unemployment rate was an increase from the 6.5 percent—or 3.16 million Filipinos—recorded in November 2021.
PSA said the December 2021 unemployment rate is the second lowest since January 2021, while there were 7.2 million unemployed Filipinos in April 2020 during the first surge of the coronavirus pandemic.
The employment rate, meanwhile, slightly dropped from 93.5 percent in November 2021 to 93.4 percent in December 2021, said the PSA.
Despite the slight dip in the employment rate, the number of employed persons in the country increased by 797,000 in December 2021 which is estimated at 46.27 million from 45.48 million in November 2021.
The underemployment rate was estimated at 14.7 percent in December 2021. This is lower than the 16.7 percent recorded a month prior, said the PSA.
“This was the fifth lowest underemployment rate in 2021. Underemployed persons are employed persons who expressed desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work,” the PSA noted.
More Filipinos looking for jobs
National Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a press briefing the uptick was due to an increase in the labor force participation rate — 65.1 percent in December compared to 64.2 percent in November.
This means that more Filipinos 15 years and older actively looked for a job. Mapa said there were 910,000 more people who are in the labor force that took part in the job market.
In time with the holidays last year, the government had eased mobility restrictions, allowing more people to go out and more businesses to operate. This was before a new round of surge in COVID-19 infections, with the Omicron variant spreading in the Philippines last January.