E. Visayas registers second highest employment rate in PH at 94.7 percent
TACLOBAN CITY – The employment rate in Eastern Visayas in October, 2020, was estimated at 94.7 percent, the second highest among the regions in the country, a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority - Regional Statistical Services Office 8 (PSA-RSSO 8), based here said on Tuesday.
PSA-RSSO 8 Regional Director Wilma Perante said this figure is the highest reported in Eastern Visayas following the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns in April, 2020, at 85.7 percent, and in July, 2020, at 91.9 percent.
Perante clarified this is 1.1 percentage points lower than the 95.8 percent employment rate during the same period last year.
She said the employment rate is the proportion of employed persons to the total labor force.
“Out of the estimated 3.1 million population, 15 years old and over in October, 2020, about 1.8 million were economically active or in the labor force. This number translates to a Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of 56.2 percent which is 2.5 percentage points lower than the 58.7 percent LFPR in October, 2019. The latest LFPR is the same with the figure reported in April, 2020,” Perante said.
She added that underemployed persons or those who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional jobs, or to have a new job with longer working hours were estimated at 355,000, or an underemployment rate of 21.2 percent, the same as the figure reported in July, 2020, but higher than the 16.4 percent recorded a year ago. The region had the third highest underemployment rate in the country.
Perante said about 89,000 persons in the labor force were unemployed in October, 2020.
"This translates to an unemployment rate of 5.3 percent, the lowest reported this year although slightly higher than the 4.2 percent unemployment rate in the same period in 2019. This figure ranked Eastern Visayas as the region with the second lowest unemployment rate in the country,” she said. "The unemployment rate is the proportion of unemployed persons to the total labor force. Unemployed persons are persons in the labor force who are reported as without work; currently available for work; and seeking work or not seeking work,” she said.