The country’s labor market kept improving in February 2023, as employment increased to 48.8 million from 45.48 million a year ago, and the unemployment rate decreased to 4.8 percent from 6.4 percent a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Tuesday.
The unemployment rate in February 2023 remained at its previous month’s rate of 4.8 percent.
National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the latest workforce data showed that the Philippine labor market was steadily recovering.
He said the lifting of various restrictions that previously impeded employment opportunities has resulted in an increase in job prospects for Filipino workers.
The unemployment rate among the youth, defined as individuals aged 15 to 24, decreased significantly from 14.2 percent in February 2022 to 9.1 percent this year.
The country’s labor force participation rate rose to 66.6 percent in February 2023, up from 63.8 percent during the same period in the previous year. This translates to an increase of 2.7 million Filipinos joining the labor force on a year-on-year basis, with 1.9 million of them being female.
Significant increases were observed among the prime working age group of 25 to 54 years old (+1.6 million) and among individuals who completed junior high school (+1.1 million).
But Balisacan said challenges to improving the quality of employment across sectors remained.
He said the government should persist in enabling the creation of high-quality jobs on the demand side and ensuring the upskilling and retooling of workers on the supply side.
“On the demand side, the strategy to create high-quality job opportunities begins with attracting more investments especially in infrastructure and in improving the regulatory environment. These interventions will improve the competitiveness of the entire economy and result in greater investor interest in other industries.”
“Our participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the amendments to the Public Service Act pave the way for more high-paying job opportunities being made available to Filipinos,” Balisacan said.
Additionally, he said the government will raise awareness among the workforce regarding the current opportunities for skill enhancement.
Currently, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) provides micro-credentialing, ladderized programs, and three-year diploma courses.
Meanwhile, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has partnered with several IT and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) companies to enhance the competencies of the workforce in accordance with industry needs.
“On the supply side, there is a need to improve the dissemination of information and awareness campaigns to encourage workers to utilize the existing resources for upskilling and retooling,” said Balisacan.
The number of underemployed persons or those employed persons who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work was recorded at 6.29 million.
This translates to an underemployment rate of 12.9 percent, which was lower than the reported underemployment rate in February 2022 (14.0 percent) and in January 2023 (14.1 percent).
The average weekly hours worked by an employed person in February 2023 was estimated at 39.5 hours per week. This was slightly lower than the average weekly hours worked in January 2023 of 39.6 hours and February 2022 of 40.8 hours.
By broad industry group, services sector consistently dominated the labor market with 59.6 percent share to the total employed population in February 2023. The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 24.1 percent and 16.3 percent of the total employed persons, respectively.
In February 2023, wage and salary workers continued to contribute the largest share of employed persons with 60.9 percent of the total employed population 15 years old and over.
This was followed by self-employed persons without any paid employee at 27.2 percent and unpaid family workers at 9.8 percent. Employers in own family-operated farm or business had the lowest share of 2.1 percent.