7.3m Filipinos jobless as of April: Official
MANILA: A total 7.3 million Filipinos lost their jobs in April, which represented a 17.7 percent unemployment rate described as an “all-time high” arising from lockdowns imposed to prevent the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), a senior official of the Phiippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday.
Claire Denise Mapa, the PSA’S chief statistician, also reported the figure also accounted for 5.3 percent in January and 5.17, a year ago which meant an additional of a total of five million people without work.
“This is a record high as the unemployment rate, reflecting the effects of the economic shutdown to the Philippine labor market arising from the COVID-19O),” Mapa told a media briefing. in addition, she cited PSA data showing that 13 million Filipinos had jobs but were not able to work, representating 34 percent.
Mapa said the number of unemployed cut across the country’s main sectors - agriculure, industry and services.
According to Mapa disclosed that the arts and entertainment sector exhibited the biggest drop with the number of jobless workers representing 54 percent even as movie and TV productions had to stop operations.
This was followed by a 43.1 decrease of workers in electricity, gas and air conditioning supply; a 46 percent reduction in information and communication firms; as well as 43.5 drop for accommodation and food services.
The significant drop in jobless people in April represented a full months of lockdowns or enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) imposed in Metro Manil and the rest of the country’s main island of Luzon as well as other parts of the country.
Based on the unemployment rate per region, the highest was recorded at 29.8 percent in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which was set up by the government in line with the the Bangsamoro Organic Law approved by Congress and signed by President
Duterte. Under the law, the government set up BARMM whose initial core territory came from the former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) composed of th provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-tawi as well as the cities of Marawi and Isabela.
The law aims to bring just and lasting peace and justice to troubled Southern Philippines wracked by violence and war caused mainly by terrorist groups that vowed allegiance to the Daesh extremists in the Middle East.