Unemployment rate lowest since January 2020 in the Philippines
- Charles Chau
- Topics: Home Page - News, Job Cuts, News, Philippines
Year-on-year, the rate fell by 2.4 percentage points from the 8.8% in January last year, according to the Labour Force Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The number of unemployed Filipinos decreased by 347,000 to 2.93 million in January this year, down from the 3.27 million in December. Year-on-year, the number fell by 1.04 million from the 3.96 million in January last year.
The fall in unemployment rate was partly attributed to the shrinking size of the workforce due to stricter mobility curbs in the capital region. The size of the labour force in January fell month-on-month by 3.60 million to 45.94 million. However, on a year-on-year basis, the size of the workforce rose by 732,000 from 45.21 million.
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In a statement, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said, “Due to the Omicron surge in January, the labour force participation rate fell from 65.1% to 60.5%. Another reason for lower employment levels is the end of the holiday season which sheds off seasonal jobs. Despite this, net employment remains at 0.5 million above the pre-pandemic level,” according to BusinessWorld.
