GOOD NEWS ||
The number of unemployed Filipinos fell by over a million in February as a result of increased mobility and the relaxation of quarantine restrictions, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Thursday, April 7.
According to the PSA’s preliminary February 2022 Labor Force Survey, there were an estimated 3.13 million unemployed individuals aged 15 and above in February, a 1.06 million decrease from the same month last year.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said in a statement that the government’s relaxed movement and mobility restrictions resulted in significant job creation during the month.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent, the lowest since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, from 8.8 percent in February 2021. The unemployment rate was 6.4 percent in February, the same as in January.
Simultaneously, the labor force participation rate increased from 60.5 percent in January to 63.8 percent in February, resulting in a net job creation of 2.5 million over the same period.
This raises the country’s employment to 2.9 million more than it was before the pandemic.
The job quality has also improved, as evidenced by the drop in the underemployment rate from 14.9 percent to 14 percent.
“As we contained the spread of the Omicron variant and ramped up the vaccination program,” Chua explained, “we were able to revert to alert level 2 in the National Capital Region and other economic centers beginning February 2022.”
“This enabled more Filipinos to re-enter the labor force.” “We intend to raise the country’s alert level to 1 in order to allow even more Filipinos to find work,” he added.
As of April 1, 2022, 79 percent of the economy is on alert level 1. However, the National Economic and Development Authority cautioned that the country would not reap the full benefits of moving to alert level 1 unless face-to-face classes were resumed.
To maximize the shift to alert level 1, Chua emphasized the importance of resuming face-to-face classes as soon as possible.
“This will enable one-fourth of the parents who stay at home with their children while they attend online classes to work.” This is critical given the temporary inflationary pressures we are experiencing as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” Chua explained.
The full resumption of face-to-face classes is included in the Economic Development Cluster’s 10-point policy agenda, which was adopted by the President through the issuance of Executive Order No. 166.
The agenda includes ten key strategies for accelerating and sustaining the country’s economic recovery and for strengthening the domestic economy in the face of external shocks.###