SWS survey says 8.9M Filipinos remain jobless in Q3 of 2017

About 8.9 million Filipino adults remained jobless in the third quarter of 2017, according to a recent survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The survey, conducted from September 23 to 27, showed that 18.9% of Filipino adults remained jobless, lower by 3.3% than the 22.2% joblessness rate or 10.5 million jobless adults recorded last June 2017.

The adult joblessness data refers to the legal age of people in the labor force. Adults with a job at present, and those without a job at present and looking for a job, are part of the labor force, according to SWS.

Based on the survey, 10.4% or 4.8 million adults resigned from their jobs, 6.6% or 3.1 million adults lost their jobs, and 1.9% or 860,000 adults were first-time job seekers.

The SWS recorded the adult labor force participation rate at 73.1% or about 46.1 million adults. This shows a 1.6% decrease from 74.7% last June.

Meanwhile, joblessness among women fell by 4.9% from 31.5% in June to 26.5% in September, while joblessness among men declined by 1.8% from 15.2% in June to 13.5% in September.

Optimism on job prospects in the next 12 months remained “very high” at 46%, but pessimism remained “fair” at 18%. This brings the net optimism on job prospects down by 3%, from 31% (very high) in June to 28% (high) in September.

According to the SWS, the survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide. It has a margin of error of ±3% nationwide, ±4% for Luzon, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao. /jpv

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