The imposition of the strictest quarantine measure in August to contain the spread of Covid-19 worsened the country’s jobless rate, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.
Education led the subsector that lost the most number of jobs with 238,000.
The PSA said that the total number of unemployed persons in August 2021 was estimated at 3.88 million individuals who were 15 years old and over.
“The country’s unemployment rate in August 2021 was estimated at 8.1 percent, or an increase of 1.2 percentage points from the 6.9 percent reported a month ago. The unemployment rate in August 2021 was lower than those reported in January, February, and April this year but it was higher than the rates in March 2021 (7.1 percent), May and June 2021 (7.7 percent), and in July 2021 (6.9 percent),” it added.
“In the 8.1 percent unemployment rate for the month of August, the ECQ (enhance community quarantine), particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR), played a big impact,” said PSA head Clair Dennis Mapa.
PSA data showed that the top five subsectors with the biggest drop in employment from July to August 2021 were: Education (238,000 jobs lost); administrative and support service activities (183,000); professional scientific technical activities (110,000); construction (85,0000); and human health and social work activities (83,000).
When it came to month-on-month changes for new jobs generated, agriculture generated the biggest number of additional jobs at 1.78 million followed by whole and retail trade, and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (992,000); manufacturing (169,000); other service activities (148,000); and fishing and aquaculture (128,000).
