Unemployment rate in Western Visayas spiked to 13.7 percent in April 2020, from 4.8% a year ago and 5.6 percent in January 2020, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority-Aklan.
The figure translates to about 417,319 jobless persons in April, higher by 271,301 compared to the April 2019 data of 146,018.
The record high in employment rate reflects the effects of COVID-19 economic shutdown in the labor market, especially during the enhanced community quarantine.
The labor force participation rate among persons 15 years old and over was estimated at 56.1 percent, or 3 million individuals, lower compared to April 2019’s 56.7 percent.
Consequently, employment rate in April 2020 plunged to 86.3 percent from 95.2 percent in April 2019.
This is equivalent to 2.6 million employed persons on April 2020 from 2.9 million employed individuals in April 2019.
In January 2020, the employment rate was pegged at 94.4 percent corresponding to about 332,027 persons.
On the other hand, the region’s underemployment clocked in at 10.9 percent up by 2.2 percent compared to 8.7 percent in April 2019.
Underemployment refers to employed persons who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours during the reference week.
Unemployment refers to all persons 15 years and over without work, looking for work, or currently available for work but not looking for it due to reasons such as tired, believed no work available, awaiting results of previous job application, temporary illness/disability, bad weather, waiting for rehire/job recall, and ECQ.
The data was derived from the results of the Labor Force Survey conducted quarterly by PSA.
