THE unemployment rate was pegged at 6.6 percent in December 2021, rising slightly from 6.5 percent in November, which was the lowest rate since 17.6 percent in April 2020 during the first hard lockdown of the pandemic, preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority shows.
The PSA said in its latest Labor Force Survey report that the total number of unemployed persons in December was estimated at 3.27 million, higher by 113,000 thousand from the 3.16 million reported in the previous month.
In April 2020, there were 7.2 million unemployed Filipinos.
National Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a press briefing the uptick was due to an increase in the labor force participation rate — 65.1 percent in December compared to 64.2 percent in November.
This means that more Filipinos 15 years and older actively looked for a job. Mapa said there were 910,000 more people who are in the labor force that took part in the job market.
In time with the holidays last year, the government had eased mobility restrictions, allowing more people to go out and more businesses to operate. This was before a new round of surge in COVID-19 infections, with the Omicron variant spreading in the Philippines last January. (©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2021)
