SWS: Fewer Filipinos unemployed in Q4 2019
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2020 08:00:58 +0000
FEWER Filipinos were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the latest survey from the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released on Tuesday.
The poll from December 13 to 16 among 1,200 respondents nationwide showed the unemployment rate at 17.5 percent, which translates to 7.9 million jobless adult Filipinos.
This is four percentage points lower than the 21.5 percent, or an estimated 10 million adult Filipinos recorded in September.
SWS defined jobless Filipinos as those who either voluntarily left their previous jobs; lost their jobs because of retrenchment; or are seeking jobs for the first time.
The survey found that 8.1 percent or an estimated 3.7 million of the total number of unemployed Filipinos voluntarily left their old jobs, 5.9 percent or an estimated 1.7 million were retrenched, and 3.5 percent or estimated 1.6 million were first-time jobseekers.
About 3.7 percent or estimated 1.7 million retrenched workers did not have their contracts renewed, 1.3 percent or estimated 613,000 got laid off, and the remaining 0.9 percent or estimated 399,000 had employers who closed operations.
SWS said that the four-percentage point rise in unemployment was over decreases of 10 points in Metro Manila and eight points in Balance Luzon, combined with increases of four points in the Visayas and one point in Mindanao.
Adult joblessness in Metro Manila fell from 24.5 percent to 15 percent, and 25 percent in to 17.3 percent in Balance Luzon. But it rose from 11.8 percent to 15.7 percent in the Visayas, and 19.9 percent to 20 percent in Mindanao.
Adult unemployment in December was higher among women, which was at 30.8 percent, compared to 8.3 percent.
In September, SWS said adult joblessness was 14.6 percent among men and 31.4 percent among women.
The same survey likewise showed that adult joblessness was higher in urban areas, which was at 15.3 percent, than in rural areas, which was at 19.6 percent.
“This is only the sixth time out of 105 observations that rural joblessness has been higher than urban joblessness. The other times were in December 1999, December 2005, December 2015, March 2017, and March 2018,” SWS said.
Joblessness rose among the 35 to 44 age group from 17.3 percent to 19.2 percent, but dropped among 18 to 25 year-olds (from 44.9 percent to 31.8 percent), among 25-34 year-olds (from 30.9 percent to 20.7 percent) and among 45 year-olds and above (from 14.0 percent to 11.8 percent).
The survey found that the labor force participation rate was at 68.7 percent or an estimated 45.5 million, lower than September’s 69.4 percent or an estimated 46.3 million.
Meanwhile, SWS said that 53 percent of adult Filipinos were optimistic while 12 percent were pessimistic about employment in the next 12 months.
Twenty-four percent believed there would be “no change” in the number of jobs available in the country while 11 percent were ambivalent on the matter.
This gives a job optimism score ( percent more jobs minus percent fewer jobs, correctly rounded) of +40, classified by SWS as “excellent (+40 and above)”.
“Job Optimism has been excellent since June 2019,” the polling firm added.
The December survey used face-to-face interviews nationwide, had sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. CATHERINE S. VALENTE