A million more Pinoys jobless as unemployment up to 25.4 percent —SWS



Unemployment continued to be the fly in the ointment that is the recent upswing in the Philippine economy, based on a new survey by pollster Social Weather Stations.

According to the SWS's March 19-22 survey unemployment among Filipinos aged 18 and up rose to 25.4 percent—equivalent to 11.1 million jobless Filipinos. This was a million more than the estimated 10.1 million jobless Filipinos in December, when unemployment among Filipinos was at 24.6 percent.

By comparison, the official unemployment rate was 7.1 percent as of January, equivalent to 2.89 million Filipinos. This was an increase from the 6.8 percent in October 2012.

Despite this, the poll still found more Filipinos upbeat on job availability for the next 12 months, with net optimism up three points to a "fair" of +13.

SWS noted that unemployment had been high since May 2005, going below 20 percent only thrice. The last time it did so was in September 2010, at 18.9 percent.

The survey used the traditional definition of “unemployed” as those who are not working and are looking for work. The employed were those with work at present, including unpaid family workers, with no past reference period.

The survey's respondents were those at least 18 years old.

By comparison, the official definition of employed included those who, during the week before the interview date, were at least 15 years old and were either at work or with a job but not at work.

Since 2005, the official definition of unemployed required that the individual not be working, be looking for work, and be available for work.

But SWS said that if it had used the official definitions, the jobless rate among adults 18 years old and above would be 15.4 percent, or about six million Filipinos.

"This means 9.9 percent are looking for a job but are not available at present or in the next two weeks," it said.

Joblessness breakdown

Dominating the ranks of the jobless were those who quit at 12 percent, while those who were retrenched was at 8 percent. The remaining five percent who were jobless were first-time jobseekers.

Of the 8 percent retrenched, those whose contracts were not renewed fell to 6 percent from 7 percent, those whose firms closed decreased to 1 percent from 2 percent, and those laid off remained at 1 percent.

The survey found the proportion of those who quit was up from 11 percent and the share of first-time jobseekers rose from 3 percent.

The survey showed joblessness increased everywhere, except among women and those in the 25-34-years-old bracket.

Among men, joblessness went up two points to 17.3 percent but hardly changed at 35.4 percent from 35.7 percent for women.

It fell by a point among "intermediate youth" aged 25 to 34 to 31.8 percent, and hardly changed at 15.8 percent from 15.5 percent among those aged 45 and up.

But it rose three points to 23 percent among the middle-aged (35-44) and by two points to 49.6 percent among the youth (18-24).

More optimism than pessimism

Optimists, or those who think there will be more jobs in the next 12 months, outnumbered the pessimists, or those with the opposing view.

The survey showed 34 percent of the respondents were upbeat about employment prospects, 21 percent said there would be fewer jobs and 28 percent expected no change.

Last December, 32 percent were optimistic, while 22 percent said there would be fewer jobs and 34 percent expected no change.

The March 19-22 survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide. Sampling error margins of ±3% for national and ±6% for area percentages applied to the survey. 

SWS published the results of its latest survey Thursday through its media partner Business World.

MDTP to address unemployment

In March this year, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the government is preparing an updated version of the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) focusing on people and quality jobs to address the growing number of jobless Filipinos. 
 
“In this update, we intend to put job creation at the center of the plan,” Balisacan told reporters. — DVM/KG, GMA News

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