Less stringent quarantine restrictions dragged down the country’s unemployment rate in November to its best level since the pandemic began, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.

The number of jobless Filipinos stood at 3.16 million in November based on the latest PSA Labor Force Survey (LFS) released on Friday, Jan. 7. The latest figure is equivalent to an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent.

National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Dennis S. Mapa said the November LFS numbers improved from an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent in October, or roughly 3.5 million jobless individuals.

Mapa attributed the better LFS numbers to easing movement controls that resulted in an unemployment rate “lowest since the pandemic .”

Despite the improvement, the latest jobless rate is still way above the country’s pre-pandemic level of 5.3 percent.

The PSA also registered a better labor force participation rate (LFPR) during the month at 64.2 percent, translating to 48.64 million individuals aged 15 years old and above who were either employed or unemployed.

The November LFPR increased by 1.31 million individuals from the 47.33 million in October.

However, underemployment, or employed persons who expressed desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, worsened after it inched up to 16.7 percent from 16.1 in October.

Nicholas Mapa, ING Bank senior economist said that while economic reopening helped generate jobs, the quality of employment was wanting as indicated by the increased underemployment rate.

“Lower quarantine restrictions allowed firms to hire more workers but at shorter shifts,” Mapa said in a research note.

“Decent headway made in the past few months as the economy gradually reopens. However the current level of employment is still well-below the pre-COVID unemployment average (of) 5.5 percent,” he added.

The country’s employment rate increased to 93.5 percent, highest for last year. It is equivalent to 45.48 million employed individuals, up from 43.83 million recorded in October.

Michael L. Ricafort, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) chief economist, meanwhile, said there are dark clouds hanging over the start of 2022 following the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

The number of cases in Metro Manila and nearby provinces has been increasing rapidly during the past three-weeks. The positivity rate has also breached the 30 percent mark, well above the World Health Organization’s standard of less than five percent.

The sharp spike in new COVID-19 resulted in higher Alert Level 3 from 2 for Metro Manila and other cities and provinces until Jan. 15.

Ricafort said the heightened quarantine restrictions could lead to some slight pick up in unemployment rate especially in January 2022.