10M Pinoys still jobless, survey says

JOBLESSNESS was almost unchanged between June and September while net optimism over the availability of jobs declined, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

The Sept. 2-5 survey found joblessness at 23.7 percent, or an estimated 10 million Filipino adults who were without jobs, from June’s 23.2 percent or an estimated 10.5 million adults. Joblessness was at 22.9 percent in the same month last year.

Despite the higher joblessness rate in September, the number of jobless Filipinos fewer compared to June because of the lower adult labor force participation rate in the third quarter, which was at 69.4 percent (an estimated 42.2 million adults) from 74 percent (45.2 million adults) in June.

The latest joblessness rate was so far the highest for the year. The peak was at 34.4 percent in March 2012.

Joblessness has been above 20 percent since November 2010, except in March 2015 when it slid to 19.1 percent.

In the Aquino administration, average joblessness was 22.5 percent in 2010, 23.6 percent in 2011, 28.8 percent in 2012, 25.2 percent in 2013 and 25.4 percent in 2014.

The nationwide joblessness rate in September included 8.4 percent (3.6 million adults) who resigned from their jobs from 10.5 percent in June; 3.6 percent (1.5 million adults) first-time job seekers, from 2.9 percent in June, and 11.7 percent who were retrenched (5 million adults), from 9.8 percent in June.

The survey interviewed 1,200 adults nationwide and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. It was first published in BusinessWorld.

Optimism down

In the survey, 35 percent believed more jobs would be available in the next 12 months, 21 percent said there would be fewer jobs and 34 percent said there would be no change, resulting in a net optimism score (percent of more jobs minus percent of fewer jobs) of “fair” +13, down from +17.

SWS considers a net optimism score of +30 and above “very high”; +20 to +29 “high”; +10 to +19 “fair”; +1 to +9 “mediocre”; -9 to zero “low”; and -10 and down “very low”.

By sex, joblessness among women rose from 31.3 percent in June to 33.9 percent September. In contrast, it dropped from 16.9 percent to 15.9 percent among men.

Across age groups, joblessness among those aged 45 and over rose from 11 percent in June to 14 percent in September.

It also went up among ages 35 to 44, from 20 percent to 22 percent, and among ages 25 to 34, from 29 percent to 31 percent.

Among 18 to 24-year-olds, joblessness went down from 55 percent in June to 51 percent in September.

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

The government uses the term unemployment in the Labor Force Survey (LFS) to refer to persons 15 years and over and who are not working, looking for work and available for work. It includes those currently available for work but are not seeking work for reasons such as waiting for results of previous job applications, temporary illness, bad weather, waiting for rehire, and feeling tired or believe that no work is available.

The government’s latest LFS puts the official unemployment rate at 6.5 percent in July. Inquirer Research