Jobless rate drops to lowest since 2005

UNEMPLOYMENT dipped to 3.1 percent in December, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday, dropping from the previous month’s 3.6 percent and the 4.3 percent posted a year earlier.

The result, which translates to 1.60 million Filipinos without jobs, was the lowest since 2005, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said.

A month earlier, there were 1.83 million unemployed Filipinos and in December last year, this was higher at 2.22 million.

Full-year unemployment registered at 4.3 percent, down from 5.4 percent in 2022.

Viewed from the employment side, 50.52 million Filipinos had jobs in December, compared to November’s 49.64 million and the year-earlier 49 million.

Underemployment — which counts those looking for more work or an extra job — worsened slightly to 11.9 percent from November’s 11.7 percent but improved from December 2022’s 12.6 percent.

The number of underemployed was equivalent to 6.01 million, the PSA said.

The services sector continued to account for the bulk of jobs, with a share of 57.3 percent. Agriculture and industry took the remaining 24.4 percent and 18.3 percent, respectively.

Wage and salary workers constituted the largest share of employed individuals, making up 62.7 percent of the total workforce.

Self-employed individuals without any hired employees followed at 27.4 percent while unpaid family workers comprised 7.8 percent. Employers in their familyoperated farm or business had the smallest share at 2.1 percent.

The country’s labor force participation rate — an estimate of the active workforce — came in at 66.6 percent, higher than November’s 65.9 percent and December 2022’s 66.4 percent.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan welcomed the latest data and reiterated the government’s commitment to create high-paying and quality jobs.

“We will continue ramping up social and physical infrastructure investments and dramatically improve human capital to strengthen our people’s employment prospects,” he said in a separate statement.

Favorable labor market conditions will continue as the government actively encourages more investments and pushes reforms, Balisacan added.

“The government must ensure that innovation and digitalization become integral across all sectors. To help enable such processes, we are very open to collaborating with our colleagues in Congress to tackle and ultimately pass the Open Access in Data Transmission bill,” he continued.

“Accelerating digitalization and improving connectivity through a more competitive and vibrant ICT sector can be a game changer, especially when considering the socioeconomic opportunities that can be created and multiplied for

small business owners and those in far-flung areas.”

Asked to comment on the employment report, China Banking Corp. chief economist Domini Velasquez said seasonal factors came into play in December so a minor correction was likely in January 2024.

“It is important to note that the positive trend in employment figures is primarily driven by seasonal factors, which are expected to diminish in the coming months,” she said.

“Looking ahead, though, a resilient economy and improving sentiment among Filipinos on job availability point to a still-robust labor market this year.”

Labor market improvements will in turn bolster household spending, potentially leading to increased economic growth this year, Velasquez said.

At the House of Representatives, Albay 2nd District Rep. Jose Maria Clemente Salceda said policies implemented by the Marcos administration were behind the lower jobless rate.

The labor picture would have been better, however, “if government spending only caught up to the rest of the economy last year.”

Salceda noted the need to raise the quality of jobs and secure more investments and claimed that this would be achieved if the Constitution were amended to relax foreign ownership limits.

“This is the whole point of my strong advocacy for changes in the Constitution: no half-hearted charter amendments, but a full-on confrontation of under-investment in land,” he said.