The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Thursday said that the number of jobless Filipinos increased in January this year, shortly after seasonal jobs started closing after the holiday season.

According to the PSA labor force survey, it showed that based on the preliminary results of the 2023 Labor Force Survey on January revealed that some 2.237 million remained as unemployed adults, with those ranging from 15 years old and above.

The said number is considered as higher from the recorded 2.22 million in December last year.

This translates to an unemployment rate of 4.8%, from 4.3% in December 2022.

It likewise marked the highest joblessness rate since September 2022’s 5%.

“Tataas ang unemployment rate sa 2023 first quarter dahil wala ng holiday season,” National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa said.

According to the PSA chief the unemployment rate is actually lower during the fourth quarter months of last year due to “seasonality” of economic activity during the holiday season.

He noted that year-on-year, the unemployment rate improved from the 6.4% joblessness rate recorded in January 2022.

“The latest employment indicators show the robust recovery and growth of our labor market from its slump in January 2022, when the surge in Omicron cases prompted stringent mobility and capacity restrictions,” National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the employment rate fell to 95.2%, equivalent to 47.35 million employed Filipinos during the period, from 95.7% rate or 49 million persons with jobs or livelihoods in December 2022.

It stated that in the year-on-year, it showed that the January’s employment figures improved from 93.6% rate or 43.27 million employed individuals in January 2022.

“However, we note that employment created year-on-year was mostly part-time and classified as vulnerable. Thus, it is imperative that labor market policies and programs that directly contribute to labor productivity and employment generation must be prioritized, not only to preserve jobs but also to generate quality jobs,” Balisacan said.

Meanwhile, as underemployed persons — those employed but expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job — had increased to 6.65 million from 6.30 million in December 2022.

It also showed that under the labor force participation rate, it rebounded to 64.5%, or is equivalent to 49.7 million Filipinos in the labor force, of which 20.6 million are women.

It is followed by the self-employed persons without any paid employee at 27.1% and unpaid family workers at 8.1%.

Employers in their own family-operated farm or business have the lowest share at 2.6%.

In the same light, among wage and salary workers, employed persons in private establishments it makes up 48.5 percentage points, followed by employed in government and government-owned and controlled corporations at 9.2 percentage points.

On the other hand, if looking at regions, it stated five areas that had a high unemployment rate than the national rate of 4.8% in January 2023.

Among them include, Region V (6.6%), CALABARZON (5.9%), National Capital Region (5.7%), Region VI (5.6%), and Caraga (5.0%).

“High-quality jobs necessitate highly-skilled individuals. We will prioritize the upskilling and reskilling of the workforce to equip them with higher competencies by expanding  lifelong learning opportunities,” he said.

Catherine R. Cueto