Diokno: Jobs market looks bright

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said that the jobs market has continued to improve, citing positive figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) June 2022 Labor Force Survey results.

“While the June 2022 employment rate remained the same as the 94.0 percent reported a month ago, the jobs market continues to look bright. The labor force participation rate and the average weekly hours worked were higher, underemployment was down, and youth employment rate was up,” said Secretary Diokno.

According to the PSA, employment in June 2022 rose to 46.59 million Filipinos from 46.08 million employed in May 2022. This was higher than the rate registered in the same period in 2021 at 92.3 percent.

While the month-on-month unemployment rate in June 2022 remained unchanged at 6.0 percent, or 2.99 million Filipinos out of 49.58 million who were in the labor force, the rate was lower than what was registered in June 2021 at 7.7 percent.

Underemployment rate in June 2022 was also down to 12.6 percent, from 14.5 percent in May 2022.

“The [labor force participation rate (LFPR)] at 64.8 was higher than the May LFPR at 64.0 percent, implying that more workers have actively joined the labor force,” said Secretary Diokno.

“The quality of jobs has improved, too. The average weekly hours worked by an employed worker in June was estimated at 40.3 hours per week, up from the mean hours worked in May (39.8 hours),” Secretary Diokno added.

Secretary Diokno cited that the visible underemployment rate or the proportion of persons working less than 40 hours in a week was estimated at 8.5 percent, down from the registered rate in May.

Youth employment rate also improved in June at 88.2 percent from 87.9 percent in May. Underemployed youth decreased from 745,000 in May 2022 to 653,000 in June 2022.

According to PSA, the services sector remained as the dominant employment hub among the industry group, absorbing 56.5 percent of the total employed persons in June 2022.

The agriculture and the industry sectors accounted for 24.5 percent and 19.0 percent of the employed persons, respectively.