The government’s latest unemployment statistics failed to include discouraged workers in the agriculture sector that were forced out of farming activities, peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said on Sunday, March 20.
The statement came after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) presented a decrease in the domestic unemployment from December 2021 to January 2022. Based on its report, the unemployment rate in the county is at 6.4 percent.
This is equivalent to 2.93 million unemployed Filipinos which turned out to be lower than the 3.27 million unemployed individuals in December 2021.
“PSA is painting a rosy picture about our state of employment but the stark reality is glaring at us. The local job crisis is worsening and the spate of price hikes make it even more difficult for jobless workers to survive,” said KMP Chairperson Danilo Ramos in a press statement.
Meanwhile, PSA’s data showed that the labor force participation rate in January 2022 dropped to 60.5 percent from December 2021’s 65.1 percent. This, according to KMP, is “deceptive” as it seems to exclude “discouraged labor force participants” who did not look for a job during the said period.
“Ang katotohanan, mas marami ang walang trabaho at nasiphayo na nawalan na ng pag-asang makahanap ng trabaho dahil sa maraming dahilan. Isa na rito ang kakulangan ng panggastos sa paghahanap ng trabaho (The fact is that many are unemployed, frustrated, and have lost hope of finding work for many reasons. One of these is the lack of budget and funding for searching a job),” Ramos added.