MANILA – The Philippines’ unemployment rate further eased to 7.7 percent in May from 8.7 percent in April, while underemployment also declined to 12.3 percent from 17.2 percent in April, the state statistics bureau said on Thursday.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), this meant the total number of unemployed individuals 15 years old and over, decreased by 408 thousand individuals to 3.73 million from 4.14 million in April.
The jobless rate in May was the lowest since March’s 7.1 percent.
The total number of people who had jobs was at 44.72 million in May 2021 or 1.45 million increase in employment from the previous month’s level of 43.27 million.
“The labor force participation rate (LFPR) in May 2021 was placed at 64.6 percent, equivalent to 48.45 million individuals who were either employed or unemployed. This is higher than the LFPR reported in the months of January (60.5 percent), February (63.5 percent), and April (63.2 percent) of 2021,” the PSA said.
It stressed that May’s underemployment rate was also the lowest reported since January 2021.
“In terms of magnitude, about 5.49 million persons were reported underemployed in May 2021. The highest estimate was reported in February 2021 at 7.85 million,” it added.
Economic managers say vaccine rollout is the key
The economic managers of the Duterte administration, Socioeconomic Planning secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez, and Budget secretary Wendel Avisado said the acceleration of the vaccination program should help solidify and accelerate the gains in employment made in May.
“We encourage local government units and establishments to coordinate on setting up vaccination facilities in workplaces. This will accelerate vaccine deployment and give our workers the confidence to go out and earn a living while keeping their families safe,” the economic managers said in a statement.
The daily vaccination rate however is at 236,867 doses per day, based on the latest data from the Philippine Health Department for the week of June 21 to 27. This is the highest vaccination rate of the Philippines yet.(ABS-CBN News)
