The number of jobless Filipinos swelled largely to almost two million this past June when compared to a year prior, according to a Manila Bulletin news report. Among the factors were the job losses in the gambling and betting sector, the construction sector and in 3 other sectors.
To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the news report of the Manila Bulletin. Some parts in boldface…
Coupled with an increase in unpaid workers, the number of jobless Filipinos swelled by more than 300,000 to 1.95 million in June from 1.62 million a year ago, with the online gambling sector partly contributing to the pool of unemployed.
Preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that job losses in June translated to a higher unemployment rate of 3.7 percent from 3.1 percent in the same month last year.
“Gambling and betting activities contributed to the drop in arts, entertainment, and recreation, along with other amusement and recreation activities,” Deputy National Statistician and PSA Assistant Secretary Divina Gracia L. Del Prado said during a press briefing on Wednesday, Aug. 6.
Del Prado reported that the gambling and betting subsector shed nearly 210,000 workers, stressing that this had the largest share in the decrease of employees in arts, entertainment, and recreation.
Other than arts, entertainment, and recreation, the four other sectors that were major contributors to June’s job losses were construction (-692,000), agriculture and forestry (-580,000), manufacturing (-424,000), and mining and quarrying (-96,000).
Conversely, the employment rate dropped to 96.3 percent in June from 96.9 percent from June last year. In terms of numbers, employed Filipinos stood at 50.47 million, nearly 200,000 individuals higher than 50.28 million a year ago.
Data from the PSA showed that the services sector accounted for the largest share of jobs during the month at 61.4 percent, followed by agriculture with 20.9 percent, and industry with 17.7 percent.
Fishing and aquaculture posted the highest gains in June, with an additional 512,000 employed. Wholesale and retail trade, and vehicle repair recorded the second largest gain of 375,000.
Completing the subsectors with largest increases were financial and insurance activities (327,000), transport and storage (211,000), and health and social work (179,000).
“What we’re seeing now isn’t very encouraging. If you look at the increase by class of worker, a large portion came from unpaid workers—actually, 296,000. Employers increased by 80,000, and self-employed by 75,000,” Del Prado said.
“But the more [impacted] group is the unpaid workers, since that’s where the increase happened—and that’s not the kind of growth we want. The rise should have been in wage and salary earners, so this isn’t a very good result,” Del Prado further said.
Del Prado noted that wholesale and retail trade saw a significant increase, with unpaid workers in this sector bloated by nearly 150,000. Fishing and aquaculture also added 102,000 unpaid jobs.
“Employment in both sectors increased, but a large part of that growth was in unpaid work. This suggests we still need to improve the quality of jobs. And if you also notice the trend in underemployment, it has barely dropped to single digits—only once so far.”
“So we still need to improve job quality. While our employment rate has been rising over time, I think we need to focus more on improving the quality of work, because the underemployment rate shows that it hasn’t improved yet,” she urged.
According to Del Prado, underemployment last fell to single digits in May 2024 at 9.9 percent but has remained in double digits since then. Underemployment in June lowered to 11.4 percent from 12.1 percent a year ago.
Let me end this post by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this recent development? What do you think needs to be done in order to improve job quality? Are a lot of people in your local community considered unemployed or underemployed? Do you think the current growth of the national economy will create a significant number of new jobs before the year ends?
You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.
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