The number of jobless individuals was estimated at 2.15 million in January as many Filipinos, particularly women, opted to do household duties, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday, March 8.

Based on the latest labor force survey, the PSA reported that the unemployment rate climbed to 4.5 percent from 3.1 percent in December 2023. However, it is lower compared to the 4.8 percent recorded in the same month of last year.

There were also fewer Filipinos in the labor force in January as the number of employed persons contracted to 45.94 million from 47.80 million recorded in October 2023 and 47.35 million in January 2023.

This may be due to people who chose to return to household duties, which comprised one million of the bulk, and schooling at 500,000, PSA Undersecretary Claire Dennis Mapa said.

Most of these are women, wherein 1.3 million refused to join the labor force which is a decline to 49.3 percent from 53.7 percent a year earlier.

On the other hand, labor participation among youth ages 15 to 24 also saw a decrease to 5.98 million or 29.6 percent from 7.02 million a year earlier.

“Tumaas yung ating employed persons noong fourth quarter at bumaba siya noong first quarter itong January round natin. Yung mga workers that were hired or joined the labor market because of the economic activities during the fourth quarter, some of them na wala na,” Mapa stated.

[Our employed persons increased in the fourth quarter and decreased in the first quarter, specifically in this January round. Some of the workers who were hired or joined the labor market due to economic activities in the fourth quarter are no longer there.]

The quality of jobs, meanwhile, improved as wage and salary workers increased to 640,000 while those who are self-employed and unpaid family workers dipped to 1.48 million and 960,000, respectively.

However, underemployed individuals, or those who are working in jobs that don't match their skills, soared to 6.39 million from 5.60 million in October 2023 and 6.65 million in January 2023.

In terms of average daily pay, improvements were seen in the bottom five major occupations with the elementary occupations receiving P402 per day from P364 a year ago; skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers at P417 from P363; service and sales workers at P508 from P475; craft and related trade workers at P533 from P499; and plant and machine operators and assemblers at P556 from P504.

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said that the government will attract more job-generating investments by creating an enabling policy and regulatory environment,

“At the same time, linkages between industry, the academe, and the public sector will be strengthened to address skill mismatches in the labor market,” he stated.

He assured that women will be prioritized in policy creation for the work landscape and that they “will remain responsive to the needs of vulnerable groups, including women, youth, older individuals, and those with disabilities.”