Unemployment rate down to 10% in July: PSA

September 3, 2020

The unemployment rate stood at 10 percent  in July as the economy opened up after three months of enhanced community quarantine to combat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Thursday.

During April, the unemployment rate was at 17.7 percent while during the same period last year, it was at 5.4 percent.

'' Unemployed Filipinos who are 15 years old and over was estimated at 4.6 million in July 2020, higher by 2.1 million compared to the same period a year ago but lower by 2.7 million from three months ago,''the PSA said.

PSA said about 41.3 million Filipinos were employed in July, 42.5 million in July 2019, and 33.8 million in April 2020.

In a statement, Karl Kendrick Chua, acting National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary, said ''the decrease in the unemployment rate means that some 2.7 million jobs returned as the quarantine level eased.''

''In addition, some 4.9 million workers rejoined the work force. All in all, some 7.5 million jobs were restored,''added Chua.

Chua said the outlook for jobs and growth will depend on how open the economy is.''This entails a better strategy to 'Prevent, Detect, Isolate, Treat and Recover',' said Chua, referring to the plan to control the spread of COVID-19.

''It also requires a safe and sufficient number of public transportation, that if needed, is supported by service contract subsidies. Without the public transport system back sufficiently, many people cannot go back to work,'' he said.

To bounce back, Chua said the economy would  have to be opened ''even more.'' ''This will depend on everyone working together to adhere to health standards, as the government accelerates the implementation of the recovery program,'' he said.

The underemployment rate decreased to 17.3 percent in July from 18.9 percent in April. This means 7.1 million were underemployed from 6.4 million in April.

The highest unemployment rate estimate of 15.8 percent was recorded in the National Capital Region (NCR).  It was followed by Calabarzon, 12.4 percent; Central Visayas, 11.7 percent;  Ilocos Region, 11.1 percent; and Central Luzon,10.9 percent.

Arts, entertainment, and recreation was the most affected sector in July 2020 with a drop in employment rate of 72.9 percent year-on-year, and a drop of 41.4 percent compared to the second quarter of 2020.

Employment rate in accommodation and food service activities came next which dropped by 35.9 percent from last year, although there was an increase of 4.7 percent from April 2020.

There were about 7.8 million Filipino youth who were either employed (6.0 million) or unemployed (1.7 million) as of July. In April, about 6.5 million youth were in the labor force, of which 4.4 million were employed and 2.0 million were unemployed. DMS