2013 SURVEY: Unemployed Pinoys increase to 12.1M

About 2.5 million Filipinos joined the ranks of the unemployed between September and December, raising the unemployment rate to 27.5 percent or an estimated 12.1 million individuals, the survey by Social Weather Stations has found.

This is almost six points higher than the recorded 21.7 percent (estimated 9.6 milion) unemployment figure in the previous quarter, results of the SWS survey conducted from Dec. 11 to 16 and first published in Business World showed.

The latest rating, however, is well below the record high of 34.4 percent posted in March 2012.
The unemployment rating has mostly remained over 20 percent since May 2005. It was under 15 percent from 1993 to March 2004, and was within 16.5 percent to 19 percent from August 2004 to March 2005.

The SWS definition of unemployment covers respondents aged 18 and above who are “without a job at present and looking for a job.” This excludes those not looking for work such as housewives, students and retired or disabled persons.
This is different from the official definition in the Labor Force Survey (LFS), which covers persons 15 years and over who are reported not working, looking for work and available for work.

The government’s latest LFS puts the official unemployment rate at 6.5 percent (estimated 2.6 million Filipinos) as of October 2013.
The SWS survey also found that 40 percent of respondents believed there would be more jobs in the next 12 months, 31 percent claimed the number of available jobs would remain the same, while 21 percent expected fewer jobs in the same period.

Unemployment picked up sharply among men (from 13.4 percent to 21.2 percent) but remained higher among women (from 32.4 percent to 35.9 percent).

Across age groups, joblessness remained highest among those 18-24 years old (52.3 percent), 33.1 percent in the 25-34 age bracket, 25 percent in the 35-44 age bracket, and 17.7 percent among those 45 years old and older.

The nationwide unemployment included those who were retrenched (10.4 percent), resigned from their jobs (13.5 percent), and first-time jobseekers (3.5 percent).
Of those retrenched, 6.8 percent did not have their contracts renewed, 1.6 percent had their employers cease operations and 2 percent were laid off.
The survey, which used face-to-face interviews of 1,550 Filipinos, had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.5 percentage points.