April unemployment lower at 5.7%
For his part, chief economist Michael Ricafort of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. told Daily Tribune that ‘unemployment rate as of April 2022 lower at 5.7 percent, again the lowest since the pandemic started in 2020 (or since January 2020, shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic, when it posted 5.3 percent).’
The country’s unemployment rate decreased from 5.8 percent in March to 5.7 percent in April this year, the lowest since the start of the pandemic.
Underemployment also declined from 15.8 percent to 14 percent in the same period, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed on Friday.
However, fewer Filipinos participated in the labor force because of supply chain disruptions brought about by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and seasonal factors in agriculture, among others.
Moreover, PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said “the labor force participation rate declined from 65.4 percent to 63.4 percent, translating to a net employment loss of 1.3 million between March and April.”
Of the 1.3 million net employment loss, 1.1 million were from agriculture while 0.5 million were from services. This was slightly tempered by 0.3 million employment generated in the industry sector.
For his part, chief economist Michael Ricafort of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. told Daily Tribune that “unemployment rate as of April 2022 lower at 5.7 percent, again the lowest since the pandemic started in 2020 (or since January 2020, shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic, when it posted 5.3 percent).”
“Slightly lower against 5.8 percent in the previous month (March 2022); also much lower against 8.7 percent a year ago (April 2021, when there were pockets of hard lockdowns back then), amid continuous measures to further re-open the economy, with the lowest Alert Level 1 for Metro Manila and other areas since March 2022 (now covering more than 80 percent of total localities nationwide; with many businesses under Alert Level 1 already allowed to operate at full capacity since June 2022),” the economist added.