Unemployed reach 4.3M in September; agri sector badly hit

WORK STOPS A rice field in Nasugbu, Batangas, goes underwater due to Typhoon “Jolina’’ in September. Bad weather was a major factor behind the heavy loss of jobs in the agriculture sector that month. —APCO Batangas facebook page

MANILA, Philippines — The number of unemployed Filipinos swelled to 4.3 million last September—the worst so far this year—after bad weather and the end of the harvest season cut 862,000 jobs in the agriculture sector, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday.

This translated to an unemployment rate of 8.9 percent, the highest in 2021.

The more relaxed quarantine restrictions in September following the lockdown in August due to a surge in Delta variant cases of COVID-19 failed to improve the situation. Despite the stringent enhanced community quarantine in August, jobs figures of 3.9 million Filipinos without work and an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent were much better.

National Statistician Dennis Mapa blamed the higher unemployment in September to the fewer people with jobs in agriculture and forestry, which declined to 8.99 million from 9.85 million in August.

“Typhoon ‘Jolina’ (international name: Conson) affected some 30,000 hectares of agricultural land across the regions of Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas and contributed to the employment loss in the sector. This decline came after the sector regained 1.9 million employment in August,” the state planning agency National Economic and Planning Authority (Neda) said in a statement.

Stringent quarantines

Compared to their August levels, employment in manufacturing suffered a reduction of 343,000 workers; information and communication, 126,000; mining and quarrying, 75,000, and real estate activities, 69,000, PSA data showed.

However, there were other sectors that benefited from the less stringent quarantine in September: wholesale and retail trade, including repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles gained 353,000 jobs compared to the previous month; employment in public administration and defense as well as compulsory social security added 118,000; construction jobs rose by 105,000, and there were 89,000 jobs added in administrative and support service activities.

In the education sector, 115,000 jobs were added, mainly school personnel when classes started, PSA data showed.

In all, a net of 642,000 jobs were shed between August and September, Neda said.

“These results were expected as many parts of the country remained under stringent and blanket quarantines for most of the survey period. In particular, the modified enhanced community quarantine was extended in the National Capital Region (NCR) up to Sept. 15,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda chief Karl Kendrick Chua said.

Optimistic

The start of the schoolyear in September also resulted in a smaller labor force population—or Filipinos age 15 and above, employed or unemployed—as some returned to school, Mapa said. PSA data showed that the labor force population declined to 47.9 million in September from 48.1 million in August, and the participation rate slightly eased to 63.3 percent last September from August’s 63.6 percent.

Chua noted that formal or white-collar jobs increased in September, while the huge losses in agriculture more than offset these gains.

He cited that agriculture jobs were seasonal and vulnerable to bad weather, hence more volatile.

“Better labor outcomes in October can be expected when the country sees the full impact of the implementation of granular lockdowns in NCR,” according to Chua.

Continuing recovery

“Overall, the economy has generated 1.1 million employment above the prepandemic level. This signals the Philippines’ continuing recovery. We look forward to the expansion of the alert level and granular lockdown system to the whole country to recover more jobs and livelihoods,” Chua said.

Underemployment, which measures the number of those employed but wanted higher-paying jobs and longer working hours, declined to 14.2 percent, or 6.2 million Filipinos, in September from 6,5 million people, or 14.7 percent, of the labor force in August.

Neda said the lower underemployment rate meant that “more people found more productive work.”