​Unemployment back above 8%

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 08 Jun 2021 by Romeo Bernardo

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The just released April round of the Labor Force Survey offers an informative comparison of the employment picture between first, this year’s lockdown vs. last year, and second, job losses during the latest lockdown. The main takeaways:Losses from this year’s smarter lockdown were substantially less than last year with labor force participation up from 56% (2020) to 63% (2021) and the unemployment rate down from 17.6% to 8.7%. Work in more loosely defined “essential” sectors was permitted this year with public transportation continuing to operate to enable worker mobility. Although all sectors reported increases in employment, most of these were in lower-paid, lower productivity areas with about a third of the new jobs in each of “elementary” occupations and service, sales and clerical support work.CHART 1.Employment picture substantially better in April 2021Source of basic data: PSACHART 2.Sectoral contribution to 28% increase in jobs between April 2020 and 2021Source of basic data: PSAGains in employment observed in March were significantly pared by April with over 2 million jobs lost and the unemployment rate rising from 7.1% in March to 8.7% in April. Although construction was permitted this year, the sector still shed over 800k jobs due likely to smaller firms’ inability to comply with the high cost of on-site distancing protocols. Significant job losses were also recorded in agriculture in wholesale/retail trade in April, a reflection perhaps of greater informality /instability of these types of work.CHART 3.Employment picture, March vs April 2021Source of basic data: PSACHART 4.Sectoral contribution to 5% decrease in jobs between March and April 2021Source of ba...