SWS reports Q2 adult unemployment at 12.5%

THE Social Weather Stations (SWS) said adult unemployment in the second quarter was 12.5%, or about one in eight adults, equivalent to 5 million persons.

SWS said 12 percentage points, equivalent to 4.8 million adults, consisted of those “who were not working, looking for work, and available for work” while 0.4 percentage point (about 179,000 adults) were “not working and available for work, but not looking for work.” It said it applied rounding on the totals.

The reasons cited for not looking for work were that the applicant was “tired (of looking) or believes that no work is available, awaiting results of a job application, temporarily ill/disabled, bad weather, or waiting for rehire or job recall.”

SWS said the survey was conducted on June 27-30, and adjusts the data for those 18 years and above. An earlier SWS report released on Sept. 12 considered unemployment in the entire labor force, which is defined by official statistics as those 15 and above, and listed the jobless rate as 19.7% or 8.6 million adults.

In the Sept. 12 report the 19.7% total was broken down into 9.5 percentage points consisting of adults who voluntarily left their jobs; 6.5 percentage points, those who involuntarily lost their jobs; and 3.4 percentage points, those who are looking for work for the first time.

SWS said for its finding of 12.5%, it excluded those who “were not available for work at present or in the next two weeks,” who were equivalent to 41.9% of the 8.6 million jobless, or around 3.6 million, leaving a total of 5 million. —