Adult joblessness rate drops to 19.7% in 2nd quarter — SWS

ADULT joblessness in the second quarter dropped to 19.7% from 23.9% a quarter earlier, Social Weather Stations (SWS) said Thursday, citing the results of a survey.

The polling organization also found that the labor force participation rate fell, as did optimism in the job market.

SWS said that the joblessness rate for adults in its June 2018 Survey “is 4.2 points below the 23.9% (est. 10.9 million adults) in March 2018, but 4 points above the December 2017 rate of 15.7%.”

SWS defines adult joblessness as “(a) those who voluntarily left their old jobs, (b) those who lost their jobs due to economic circumstances beyond their control, termed as the retrenched, and (c) those seeking jobs for the first time.”

The second quarter adult jobless rate breaks down into 9.5 percentage points for adults voluntarily leaving their old jobs; 6.8 percentage points for involuntary job losses; and 3.4% for first-time job hunters.

Adult joblessness fell in Balance Luzon (to 19.3% from 28.1% ) and the Visayas (to 19.0% from 21.6% ). Adult joblessness rose to 19.4% from 19.0% in Metro Manila and to 21.2% from 20.8% in Mindanao.

SWS reported that adult joblessness “hardly moved in overall urban areas,” rising 0.4 points quarter-on-quarter to 23.2% in June. SWS added in rural areas, adult joblessness fell 8.5 points quarteron-quarter to 16.2%.

SWS also found in its June Survey “found the adult labor force participation rate at 68.3%, or an estimated 43.8 million adults.”

The labor force participation rate is the percentage of people deemed of working age who are at work. The Philippine Statistics Authority defines the labor force as those 15 years and over, both employed and unemployed.

SWS said the participation rate fell from 71.4% - an estimated 45.8 million adults - from three months earlier.

Survey participants who said they were optimistic about the job market fell by 2 percentage points quarteron-quarter to 47%. Those who marked themselves as pessimists rose 3 percentage points to 15% in June 2018.

Net optimism on job availability at +32 was deemed “very high,” SWS said. “Very high” is the second-highest of seven tiers after “excellent” (+40 and above). The lowest tier is “very low” at -10.

The non-commissioned survey was conducted between June 27 and 30 via face-to-face interviews with 1,200 participants nationwide. —