Economic managers attribute drop to easing of quarantine restrictions

The number of jobless Filipinos declined by around 410,000 in May this year.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday, July 1, that unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent in May from 8.7 percent the previous month.

The latest jobs report is equivalent to 3.73 million unemployed residents, lower by 10 percent compared with 4.14 million in April.

President Duterte’s economic team attributed the improved jobs performance to easing of the quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and nearly provinces, along with the faster roll-out of the vaccination program.

The number of Filipinos who had jobs or seeking to find work also improved as the labor force participation rate (LFPR) increased to 64.6 percent during the month from 63.2 percent in April.

Latest LFRP translates to 48.45 million individuals, higher than April’s 47.41 million.

Moreover, the number of Filipinos already working, but still looking for more work or longer working hours improved as underemployment rate fell to 12.3 percent in May from 17.2 percent in the previous month.

The PSA said an estimated 5.49 million residents were reported underemployed in May, down from 7.45 million a month earlier.

“These significant improvements point to an economy on the mend,” the economic managers, consisting of Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua and Budget Secretary Wendel E. Avisado, said in a joint statement.

“As the economy was further reopened in the second half of May, more Filipinos were able to re-join the labor force and earn sufficient income, as indicated by the lower underemployment rate.

About 1.5 million jobs were created between April and May, according to the government’s economic cluster heads.

By industry group, the services sector continued to account for the largest share of employment with 57.8 percent of the total, followed by agriculture and the industry sectors with 23.8 percent and 18.4 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the economic managers urged everyone to get vaccinated and continue adhering to the minimum health standards to sustain the country’s recent gains and achieve a 6.0 percent to 7.0 percent economic growth in 2021.

As of June 27, vaccine deployment reached 10 million doses, consisting of 7.5 million and 2.5 million for the first and second doses, respectively. Of the total, 829,662 workers have received their first dose.

“With an additional 27 million doses scheduled to arrive from now until August 2021, we expect our vaccination program to proceed at a faster pace as we target to inoculate 70 million Filipinos or the entire adult population by the end of the year,” the economic team said.

Daily vaccine deployment currently reached as high as 355,000. “By getting vaccinated, each one can help restore the opportunities taken away by the pandemic. Let us continue working together to collectively achieve a strong recovery in 2021,” the economic managers said.