Jobless rate eased to 25.7% in December

FILE PHOTO: A man looks at a poster showing the list of jobs for hire. INQUIRER/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — Joblessness eased last year as the country shifted to less stringent restrictions, but it still stayed above pre-pandemic levels, results of an unofficial Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Thursday showed.

The survey, conducted from Dec. 12 to Dec. 16 using in-person interviews among 1,440 adults nationwide, found that 25.7 percent of the adult labor force were jobless last year, 11.7 points below the record-high 37.4 percent in 2020.

But this was still 5.9 percent above the prepandemic average of 19.8 percent recorded in 2019.

According to the SWS survey, 24.7 percent of the adult labor force were jobless, or an estimated 11 million, in the fourth quarter of 2021. The SWS said that was the lowest since the 17.5 percent in December 2019.

SWS defines the labor force as adults that currently have a job or are looking for a job while the labor force participation rate is the proportion of adults in the labor force.

The SWS labor force participation rate was at 62.8 percent in December 2021, or an estimated 44.5 million.

By area, adult joblessness in December was highest in Metro Manila at 34 percent, followed by Luzon outside Metro Manila at 29 percent, Mindanao at 18 percent and the Visayas at 17 percent.

Joblessness fell among women from 32.3 percent in September to 31.2 percent in December while it rose among men from 19.3 percent in September to 20.5 percent in December.

By age group, joblessness rose among those aged 18 to 24, 35 to 44, and 45 years old and above while it fell among those aged 25 to 34.

December joblessness fell in urban areas from 30 percent in September to 26.6 percent in December while it rose in rural areas from 20 percent in September to 22.8 percent in December.

The SWS said its survey had a sampling margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.6 percent.

The Palace through Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said the decline in joblessness showed the effectiveness of the government’s COVID-19 alert level system.

“This is a clear indication how effective our calibrated strategy of shifting to Alert Level System to further reopen the economy—where more businesses are operating and more Filipinos are able to go to work,” Andanar said. —REPORTS FROM Inquirer research and NESTOR CORRALES

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