THE latest Labor Force Survey (LFS) results showed a promising picture of the employment situation in the country as of April 2023, but looking at the employment figures shows that the proportion of unpaid work is increasing.
Results of the April 2023 LFS showed employed individuals rose to 48.06 million from 45.63 million in April 2023.
Broken down by class of worker, wage and salary workers accounted for the lion’s share of 61.5% or 29.57 million of the total employed persons during the period. This was followed by self-employed individuals without employees with 27.5% or 13.23 million share.
Meanwhile, unpaid family workers are the third largest worker class among employed persons in April, with 4.07 million or 8.5% share.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) defines an unpaid family worker as a person who works without pay on own family-operated farm or business by another member living in the same household.
The PSA does not consider room and board and any cash allowance given as incentives as compensation for the said worker class.
Year-on-year, unpaid family workers’ share in the employed category rose from 3.23 million in April 2022 and from 3.85 million in January this year.
At a press briefing, PSA chief and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa admitted that the number of unpaid family workers “is quite substantial in terms of the numbers.”
Mapa said a large portion of unpaid family workers are in the youth sector — ages 15 to 24 — who helped in family-owned farms, establishments, or enterprises.
The PSA chief also noted that of the 6.29 million employed 15 to 24 year-olds, “1.7 million of the were unpaid family workers.”
“The major source of unpaid family workers is in agriculture with an increase of 110,000 and then in manufacturing which added 46,000. These are the two sub-sectors wherein there was an increase in unpaid family workers,” Mapa said.
Sought for comment, ING Bank Manila senior economist Nicholas Mapa said that the rise in unpaid family workers may “suggest that Filipinos are finding other forms of employment that pay well enough to shift away from more traditional workplace settings.”
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort has a different take, saying that it “may have to do with still relatively higher prices/inflation that created some squeeze on profit margins on some smaller family businesses.”
Since May last year, the policy-setting Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has raised interest rates by a total of 425 basis points to temper rising inflation.
Monetary policy or interest rates are among the tools used by central banks to stabilize inflation through controlling money supply by raising borrowing costs.
Higher borrowing costs could make consumers and businesses spend less, therefore reducing economic activity or lowering demand and eventually lowering prices. (GMA Integrated News)
