(Eagle News) – Philippine employment rate grew in March 2022 at 94.2, the highest since April 2020 or a month after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic.
“In terms of magnitude, an increase of 1.50 million employed persons was accounted from February 2022 (45.48 million) to March 2022 (46.98 million),” the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
A total 1.64 million employed individuals were also added to the employed population of 45.33 million in March 2021.
The PSA said that the unemployment rate in March was at 5.8 percent, lower compared to the estimates a month before at 6.4 percent. A year ago, it was even higher at 7.1 percent.
About 2.87 million were unemployed in March 2022. This was down to 3.13 million in February 2022 and 3.44 million in March 2021.
-Services sector dominate labor market-
The PSA said that the services sectors also dominated the labor market. It contributed a 57.4 percent share of the country’s 46.98 million employed workforce.
Next was the agriculture and the industry sectors which accounted for 25.2 percent and 17.4 percent of the employed persons, respectively.
-Top five subsectors with increased employment-
The month-on-month changes on employment from February 2022 to March 2022 showed the following top five sub-sectors with reported increase in the number of employed persons:
a. Agriculture and forestry (904 thousand);
b. Administrative and support service activities (322 thousand);
c. Public administration and defense; compulsory social security (213 thousand);
d. Manufacturing (211 thousand);
e. Financial and insurance activities (180 thousand).
The PSA said that the underemployment rate in March 2022 was registered at 15.8 percent, lower than the estimated underemployment rate in the same month of 2021 at 16.2 percent. This was however higher compared to the 14.0 percent estimate a month ago.
Underemployment refers to the situation of workers who find employment only for shorter than normal periods, such as part-time workers, seasonal workers, or day or casual workers.
The country’s Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in March 2022 also continued to pick up at 65.4 percent, the highest since the start of the COVID pandemic, according to National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Undersecretary Dennis Mapa.
This was higher by 1.6 percentage points from the estimate a month ago.
-Subsectors that showed drop in employment-
The PSA also identified the following top five sub-sectors that showed a drop in the number of employed persons from February 2022 to March 2022:
a. Construction (-200 thousand);
b. Accommodation and food service activities (-107 thousand);
c. Transportation and storage (-75 thousand);
d. Education (-69 thousand); and
e. Professional, scientific, and technical activities (-67 thousand).
The PSA said that year on year changes from March 2021 to March 2022 showed only three of the sub-sectors that reported a decline in employment. These were the following:
a. Construction (-754 thousand);
b. Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor and motorcycles (-239 thousand); and
c. Fishing and aquaculture (-114 thousand).
(Eagle News Service)
