THE Philippine labor situation saw a recovery in August with the increase in the number of employed Filipinos, while the unemployed declined amid the observed rise in women entering the workforce, according to the results of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) latest Labor Force Survey (LFS).
At a press conference yesterday, National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa reported that the number of employed adults, ages 15 and above, grew to 49.15 million in August from 4.7 million in July.
As a percentage of the 51.22 million Filipinos in the labor force during the month, the number of individuals with jobs or livelihoods translates to an employment rate of 96%, up from 95.3% in July.
Consequently, the number of unemployed persons declined to 2.07 million in August from 2.38 million month-on-month, equivalent to an unemployment rate of 4%, down from 4.7% in July.
Mapa attributed the favorable labor statistics to the increase in female workers entering the labor force during the month.
“Isang major factor, maraming kababaihan ang pumasok sa labor force… at marami ang na-absorb,” Mapa said.
“We have more female workers joining the labor force,” he added.
Labor force participation among female workers stood at 54.7%, up from 52.4% month-on-month. Among male workers, labor force participation saw a slight growth to 74.8% from 74.5% in the prior month.
Employment rate among women, likewise, grew to 95.3% from 94.8%. Joblessness in female workforce participants also slipped to 4.7% from 5.2%. Employment rate among male workers also grew to 96.5% from 95.6%, while unemployment dipped to 3.5% from 4.4%.
The underemployment rate in August also saw a decline to 11.2%, from 12.1% in July.
In terms of magnitude, underemployed persons stood at 5.48 million out of the 49.15 million employed during the month.
Underemployed refers to individuals who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional jobs, or to have a new job with longer hours of work.
SECTORS
The services sector remained as the top sector in terms of the number of employed persons with a share of 63.3% of the total 49.15 million employed persons in August.
The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 19.3% and 17.4% of the employed persons, respectively.
Moreover, wage and salary workers continued to account for the largest share of employed persons with 62.4% of the total.
This was followed by self-employed persons without any paid employee at 28.3% and unpaid family workers at 6.9%.
Employers in own family-operated farm or business had the lowest share of 2.5%. (GMA Integrated News)
