Joblessness among adult Filipinos rose by 1.2mn in the third quarter of 2018, a survey held by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.
The poll, conducted from September 15 to 23 among 1,500 Filipino adults, found adult joblessness at 22% or around 9.8mn adults.
This was 2.3 points higher than the 19.7% or 8.6mn adults in June, but 1.8 points below the 23.9% (10.9mn) in March, according to SWS.
Of the 22% in September, SWS said 9.2% or 4.1mn adults were retrenched, 8.4% or 3.7mn left their old jobs, and 4.4% or 2mn were first-time job seekers.
“The 9.2% who were retrenched consisted of 6.6% whose previous contracts were not renewed, 1.6% who were laid off, and 1.0% whose employers closed operations,” the polling firm said.
It said optimism that there will be more jobs fell by eight points, from 47% in June to 39% in September, while pessimism that there will be fewer jobs rose by one point from 15% to 16%.
The same survey also found the adult labour force participation rate at 69.3%, or an estimated 44.4mn adults.
“This is a 1.0-point increase from the 68.3% (estimated 43.8mn adults) labour force participation rate in June 2018,” SWS added. The third quarter survey, using face-to-face interviews among 1,500 adults nationwide, had sampling error margins of + or - 3% for national percentages, + or – 4% for Balance Luzon, and + or – 6% each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao.