3.5M Filipinos unemployed in October 2021

The unemployment rate of the country in October this year was the third lowest reported in 2021 at 7.4 percent. The lowest reported was in July 2021 estimated at 6.9 percent, followed by 7.1 percent in March 2021. Unemployment rate was highest this year in September 2021 at 8.9 percent.

In terms of magnitude, the total number of unemployed persons 15 years old and over in October 2021 was registered at 3.50 million. It was lower by 309 thousand from the total unemployed persons reported in October 2020 (3.81million).

The labor force participation rate (LFPR) in October 2021 was estimated at 62.6 percent, translating to 47.33 million who are either employed or unemployed. This is higher than the LFPR reported in the same quarter last year at 58.7 percent but lower than the September 2021 LFPR at 63.3 percent.

In terms of magnitude, there was a year-on-year increment of 3.68 million individuals in the labor force from the 43.65 million in October 2020.

Employment in the country improved with a reported 43.83 million employed persons in October 2021 from 39.84 million employed persons in the same period last year. In July 2021, number of employed persons was registered at 41.67 million.

Employment rate posted a month-on-month increase from 91.1 percent in September 2021 to 92.6 percent this October 2021.

The average weekly hours worked of an employed person reduced to 39.7 hours per week in October 2021 from 40.8 hours per week in October 2020. This was also lower than the 41.8 hours per week in July 2021.

In October 2021, employed persons reported to have worked less than 40 hours in a week was estimated at 36.6 percent, higher than the 30.6 percent in July 2021. On the other hand, employed persons who worked 40 hours and over was estimated at 62.4 percent in October 2021.

Underemployment rate or employed persons who expressed desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work was registered at 16.1 percent in October 2021. This was lower than the 20.9 percent reported in July 2021 but higher than the October 2020 estimate of 14.4 percent.

In October 2021, LFPR was higher among men at 74.9 percent compared to women at 50.2 percent. The employment rate for men was reported at 92.8 percent while the employment rate for women was at 92.3 percent. Moreover, men had higher underemployment rate 18.0 percent than their women counterpart at 13.1 percent.

By broad industry group, the services sector continued to dominate the employment market having the largest share of employed persons of about 57.6 percent. The agriculture and the industry sectors accounted for 24.6 percent and 17.8 percent of the employed persons, respectively.

In terms of year-on-year change, the top five sub-sectors with the highest increase on the number of employed persons from October 2020 to October 2021 were the following:

1. Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor and motorcycles (1.32 million);
2. Agriculture and fishery (990 thousand);
3. Manufacturing (297 thousand);
4. Public administration and defense, compulsory social security (287 thousand);
5. Other service activities (239 thousand); also

In terms of quarter-on-quarter change, the top five sub-sectors with the highest increase in the number of employed persons from July 2021 to October 2021, were compose of:

1. Agriculture and forestry (1.35 million)
2. Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor and motorcycles (1.20 million);
3. Fishing and aquaculture (234 thousand);
4. Public administration and defense; compulsory social security. (102 thousand);
5. Human health and social work activities (84 thousand); and

In contrast, the top five major industries with the largest decline in employment from October 2020 to October 2021 were as follows:

1. Construction (-310 thousand);
2. Transportation and storage (-156 thousand);
3. Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor and motorcycles (-151 thousand);
4. Other service activities (-118 thousand);
5. Arts, entertainment and recreation (-54 thousand).

At the regional level, six regions posted unemployment rates higher than the national figure of 7.4 percent in October 2021, namely: CALABARZON (10.3%), MIMAROPA (10.0%), NCR (9.2%), Region V (9.0%), Region I (8.4%) and Region VIII (7.6%). (Table 4)

Youth labor force participation rate (LFPR) was reported at 35.7 percent in October 2021. This was higher than the reported 33.9 percent on the same period last year and the reported youth LFPR in July 2021 at 33.3 percent. Unemployment rate among the youth was 15.1 percent in October 2021 which is lower than the unemployment rate in October 2020 (19.4%) and July 2021 (15.4%).

Youth employment rate increased to 84.9 percent in October 2021 from 80.6 percent in the same month of 2020.  Among the employed youth, 14.6 percent were underemployed, this was higher than the reported 12.5 percent in October 2020. (PSA)