Unemployment at 6.4 pct in February, 3.13 million jobless Filipinos - PSA

MANILA, April 7 ------ The Philippines' unemployment rate settled at 6.4 percent for the month of February, the state statistics bureau's Labor Force Survey released Thursday showed. Although the unemployment rate was unchanged compared to January 2022, February's number of jobless Filipinos reached 3.13 million, higher than the 2.93 million the previous month, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a briefing.

February's unemployment rate is lower than the 8.8 percent of 4.19 million jobless Filipinos in the same comparable period last year, the PSA said. Underemployment, meanwhile, eased to 14 percent in February compared to 14.9 percent in January and 18.2 percent in the same period last year. February's underemployment is equivalent to 6.38 million workers, data showed. The employment rate for February was also steady at 93.6 percent with 45.48 million Filipinos, compared to the 43.02 million the previous month. Unemployment ballooned when the pandemic started in early 2020 due to lockdowns imposed to stem the spread of the disease.

In a statement, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said the nationwide shift to Alert Level 1 could further improve the employment rate. Chua said more Filipinos joined the labor force when restrictions in the National Capital Region and other key economic centers eased to Alert Level 1. Chua reiterated the full "and urgent" implementation of face-to-face classes to allow parents who were forced to stay at home, to go back to work.

The Labor Force Participation rate rose to 63.8 percent in February from 60.5 percent the previous month. "We aim to shift the entire country to Alert level 1 to enable even more Filipinos to find work,” Chua said. As of April 1, he said 79 percent of the economy is under Alert Level 1.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com