Jobless rate declines further to 8.7% in October

December 3, 2020

October unemployment rate came in at 8.7 percent, which means 3.8 million Filipinos, 15 years old and above are jobless, from 10 percent in July, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Thursday.

The 8.7 percent jobless rate is the lowest since April's 17.6 percent although this is higher than year-ago unemployment of 4.6 million in 2019, said National Statistician Dennis Mapa.

However, the National Capital Region, Ilocos and Calabarzon reported double-digit unemployment rates.

NCR unemployment rate was estimated at 12.4 percent, followed by  Ilocos at 11.5 percent, and Calabarzon at 11 percent.

The employment rate is at 91.3 percent, which translates to ''about 39.8 million employed Filipinos out of the 43.6 million who were in the labor force,'' said Mapa. ''The employment rate was the highest since April,'' he added.

Although the jobless rate has fallen sharply since April, the labor force participation rate in October was 58.7 percent or 43.6 million Filipinos reported as either employed or unemployed.

This is the second lowest reported in the history of the Philippine labor market following the record low of 55.7 percent in April, said Mapa.

The underemployment rate declined in October at 14.4 percent from the rates in April and July 2020 at 18.9 percent, and 17.3 percent, respectively. But it is still higher than the October 2019 rate at 12.8 percent.

Employed persons reported with job but not at work was estimated at 1.0 percent or 387, 000 in October .

This is the lowest number reported since April with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic or community quarantines as the paramount reasons by most employed persons as reason for having a job but not at work, said Mapa.

By industry group, 57.2 percent were employed in services followed by agriculture sector with about 24.5 percent.

In terms of year-on-year employment growth rate among sub-sectors, arts, entertainment and recreation had the highest decline at 38.2 percent, followed by accommodation and food service activities at 33.2 percent.

Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities had the highest year-on-year employment growth rate (23.2 percent) followed by fishing and aquaculture (5.4 percent), and education (5.2 percent). DMS