The country’s unemployment rate ballooned to 17.7% in April, the highest recorded since the 8.4% rate in 2005, as the lockdown to contain the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) forced the closure of thousands of businesses.
The Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Labour Force Survey (LFS) that was released on Friday showed that April’s figure was significantly higher than the 5.3% in January and the 5.1% in April last year.
National Statistician Dennis Claire Mapa said the unemployment rate was equivalent to an estimated 7.3mn jobless people, higher than the 2.3mn in the same month in 2019.
All regions reported double-digit unemployment rates.
The highest was in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at 29.8% and the lowest in Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) at 11.1%. The employment rate also plummeted to 82.3% in April 2020 from 94.9% in the same month last year.
“This translates to a decrease in employed persons from 41.8mn in April 2019 to 33.8mn in April 2020,” said Mapa.
The biggest numbers of lost jobs were in arts, entertainment and recreation; electricity, gas, steam, and air-conditioning supply; information and communication; accommodation and food service activities; and construction.
The underemployment rate — the proportion of the employed wanting additional work — went up to 18.9% from 13.4% last year.
This corresponds to about 6.4mn underemployed workers from 5.6mn a year ago.
Mapa said the population 15 years old and above was estimated at 73.7mn, up from the 71.8mn in the same period last year.
Of the total population, 41mn were part of the labour force, down from the 44mn last year.
Mapa said the labour force shrank by 55.6% in April 2020, the lowest drop in Philippine history.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Acting Secretary Karl Chua said the results of the April survey reflects the impact of the enhanced community quarantine or ECQ on employment.
“The prospects for the economy and employment will hinge on two important factors.
The first one is the proactive stance of the government to address the needs of the people and we have been doing that since March through the Bayanihan, social amelioration programme, wage subsidy and so on,” Chua said during the #AskNEDA online briefing.
“The second factor is the co-operation of the people to maintain the minimum health standards — that they should stay home except to work or buy food, they wash hands, and wear a mask. All of these are needed together to shape the type of recovery,” he said.
Public Works Secretary Mark Villar has said that surge in the unemployment rate negated the 6.57mn jobs projection of the Department of Public Works and Highways under its ‘Build, Build, Build’ programme.
Villar said in 2016, 911,034 jobs were generated, rising to 1,196,555 jobs in 2017; 1,714,905 in 2018; 1,226,023 in 2019; and 6.57mn jobs by the end of this year.
But the coronavirus pandemic forced a lockdown that closed hundreds of thousands of businesses.
“This year, and an estimated 1,525,342 of jobs will be generated from the 2020 budget,” Villar said. Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd said the unemployment spike was expected.
“When the global pandemic hit, we feared that employment would be impacted badly. We expected these results given that the health crisis has crippled most of our economic activities,” Bello said.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr said the record unemployment in April was not surprising given the imposition of the lockdown.
“We are saddened — albeit unsurprised — by the April 2020 unemployment rate released by the Philippine Statistics Authority which registered at 17.7 %,” Roque said in a statement.
“This is an obvious effect of the economic shutdown when the entire Luzon area was in an enhanced community quarantine where most businesses were closed and many people were out of work and stayed at home,” he said.
Roque said the government had implemented various forms of subsidies to assist displaced workers. He also said priority policies and strategies for production sectors including agriculture and fishery, industry, services and tourism “to enable the economy to recover and transition to the new normal” were already underway. “A resiliency programme, such as but not limited to active labour market programmes, job matching and skills upgrading, is likewise being prepared to help insulate our people from future similar crises,” Roque said.
In March, President Rodrigo Duterte imposed strict quarantine measures in Luzon to contain the spread of the virus.
The government started easing restrictions in May in response to calls to partially reopen the economy.
Albay Rep. Jose Maria Clemente “Joey” Salceda warned of more job losses in the next months on top of the 8mn recorded in April unless additional employment is created.