Better response to unemployment, unfilled job vacancies

Increased unemployment is one of the adverse consequences of protracted lockdowns. After reaching an all-time high of 17.7 percent in the second quarter of 2020, the country’s unemployment rate in June 2021 eased to 7.7 percent as reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) last August 3.

This means 3.76 million Filipinos, age 15 and older, were unemployed in June – lower than the levels reported in January, February and April this year, but higher than the 7.1 percent reported in March 2021. Before the pandemic, unemployment was at a record low of 4.5 percent in end-2019.

Equally worrisome as unemployment is underemployment, which increased to 14.2 percent in June from approximately 12.3 percent in May. In terms of magnitude, there was an increase of 918,000 underemployed persons, from 5.49 million in May to 6.41 million in June. In contrast the actual number of unemployed increased by 30,000 from May to June. For every one person that was added to the rolls of the unemployed, 31 more became underemployed.