SWS: Unemployment lowest in September

MANILA, Philippines—Joblessness in the country hit its lowest mark this year in September, with 22.9 percent, or an estimated 10.4 million adults without jobs that month, according to the most recent survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The latest jobless figure was 3 percent down from the 25.9 percent, or about 11.8 million, recorded in June and the 25.7 percent, or about 11.5 million, in March, the SWS survey said.

Adult joblessness has mostly remained at over 20 percent since May 2005, except in three instances. The record low was 5.4 percent in February 1998 while the record high was 34.4 percent in March 2012, the SWS noted.

The SWS definition of joblessness covers respondents age 18 and over who are “without a job at present and looking for a job.” This excludes those not looking for work like housewives, students and retired or disabled persons.

This is different from the official definition in the Labor Force Survey (LFS), which defines “unemployed” as persons 15 years and over who are reported not working, looking for work and available for work.

Also included are those currently available for work but are not seeking work for such reasons as waiting for results of previous job applications, temporary illness, bad weather, waiting for rehire, feeling tired or belief that no job is available.

The latest LFS put the official unemployment rate at 7 percent (about 2.92 million Filipinos) as of April.

Optimism scores

If the availability requirement is included, the SWS said the adult joblessness in the third quarter would be 15.4 percent, or about 6.4 million Filipinos. This would consist of 15.3 percent (6.3 million) who were not working, looking for work or available for work, and 0.2 percent (77,000) who are not working, not looking for work for the reasons stated above, but available for work.

The results of the survey, conducted from Sept. 26 to 29, also found that 33 percent of respondents believed there would be more jobs in the next 12 months, 33 percent claimed the number of available jobs would remain the same, while 22 percent expected fewer jobs.

This yielded a net optimism score (percent of more jobs minus percent of fewer jobs) of a “fair” plus-12 in September, 8 ticks up from the “mediocre” plus-4 in June.

For net personal optimism, the SWS considers a rating of plus-30 and above as “very high”; plus-20 to plus-29 as “high”; plus-10 to plus-19 as “fair”; plus-1 to plus-9 as “mediocre”; zero to minus-9 as “low”; and minus-10 and below as “very low.”

Joblessness among men remained the same (from 14.7 percent to 14.9 percent) but declined among women (from 39.9 percent to 33.2 percent).

Who are the jobless?

Across age groups, joblessness remained highest among those 18 to 24 years old (49.7 percent). It was 30.3 percent in the 25-to-34 age bracket, 18.3 percent in the 35-to-44 age bracket and 15.4 percent among those 45 years old and older.

The nationwide joblessness included those who were retrenched (7 percent or an estimated 3.3 million), resigned from their jobs (12 percent or about 5.5 million) and first-time jobseekers (3 percent or 1.6 million).

Of those retrenched, 4 percent did not have their contracts renewed (also called “endo” or end of contract, usually after six months so that the workers won’t be regularized and the employer won’t pay benefits); 2 percent had employers whose businesses ceased operations; and 1 percent were laid off.

The survey, which used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 Filipinos, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Inquirer Research

SWS ADULT JOBLESSNESS RATE (in precent)

Sept ’14        22.9

June ’14        25.9

March ’14    25.7

Dec ’13          27.5

Sept ’13        21.7

June ’13        26.1

March ’13    25.4

Source: SWS