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RANKS of unemployed Filipinos and those employed who wanted more work increased in January, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported this morning.
Preliminary results from the January 2021 PSA round of the Labor Force Survey (EPA) showed around 3.953 million unemployed Filipinos, up from 3.813 million in October 2020 and 2.391 million in January 2020.
This places the unemployment rate at 8.7% in January, unchanged from October 2020 but higher than 5.3% in January 2020.
The January 2021 reading was the highest among the January LFS rounds since the government adopted new definitions for the survey in 2005.
Similarly, the underemployment rate, the share of those already working, but still looking for more work or more hours of work, worsened to 16% from 14.4% in October and 14.8% in January 2020. This translates to 6.589 million Filipinos underemployed, compared with 5.747 million in the previous survey round and 6.299 million last year.
Among the EPA’s January rounds, the latest underemployment rate was the highest since 18% recorded in January 2018.
The size of the workforce was approximately 45.201 million of the 74.733 million Filipinos aged at least 15 years, yielding a labor force participation rate of 60.5%. This was higher compared to 58.7% in October 2020, but lower compared to 61.7% in January 2020.
The employment rate, the ratio of employees to the total force, was 91.3% in January 2021, unchanged from October 2020 but lower than 94.7% in January 2020. This equates to approximately 41,248 million Filipinos, compared to 39,836 million in October 2020, but down from 42,543 million last year.
The employment rate in the service sector fell to 57.2% in January from 58.6% in the same round of surveys last year.
Agriculture rose to 24.4% from 22.6%, while the industrial sector fell to 18.4% from 18.8%.
The LFS, which the PSA conducted quarterly in previous years, will now be released monthly this year to closely monitor the current employment situation in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. – Marissa Mae M. Ramos
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