MANILA, Philippines — About 11.9 million Filipinos were found jobless in September amid the worst surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.
The latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that 24.8 percent of the labor force were found without a job from Sept. 12 to Sept. 16. This was down by only 2.8 points from the 27.6 percent, or some 13.5 million jobless individuals, recorded in June this year.
The poll was conducted when the country was experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases following the detection of local transmission of the Delta variant.
Labor force participation rate dropped to 68 percent, or an estimated 48.2 million people, from the 69.1 percent, or about 48.9 million, registered in June.
The SWS defines the labor force as adults (age 18 years and above) currently employed or those looking for a job, while labor force participation rate is the proportion of adults in the labor force.
The jobless are those who voluntarily left their jobs, those seeking jobs for the first time, or those who lost their jobs due to circumstances beyond their control, the SWS said.
The slight dip in joblessness rate was attributed to the decrease in all areas except in the Visayas, where it climbed to 22.6 percent from 21.3 percent in June.
Metro Manila registered the largest decline from 40.9 percent in June to 33.6 percent in September. This was followed by Luzon outside Metro Manila (from 30.9 percent to 27.5 percent) and Mindanao (from 19.2 percent to 16.4 percent).
Joblessness also dropped among women from 38.3 percent to 32.3 percent, but it hardly changed among men from 19.8 percent to 19.3 percent.