Jobless Pinoys up by 100,000 – SWS

MANILA, Philippines - The number of jobless Filipinos rose by 100,000 in the second quarter of this year, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in its latest survey.

The country’s unemployment rate increased to 26.1 percent (11.2 million) in June from 25.4 percent (11.1 million) in March based on the SWS poll taken from June 28 to 30.

Results of the SWS survey on adult joblessness were published in the newspaper BusinessWorld yesterday.

According to SWS, the 26.1 percent unemployed consists of nine percent who were retrenched, 12.3 percent who resigned and 4.8 percent who were first-time job seekers.

Of those retrenched, 6.5 percent did not have their contracts renewed, 1.6 percent saw their employers close shop and 0.9 percent were laid off.

SWS noted that adult joblessness has been traditionally dominated by those who voluntarily left their old jobs and those who lost their jobs due to economic circumstances beyond their control.

Meanwhile, 33 percent of respondents are hopeful there would be jobs available in the next 12 months, up by a point from 32 percent in March.

Those who said there would be fewer positions for the taking, on the other hand, fell from 21 percent to 18 percent while those who expected no change went up by two points to 30 percent.

Joblessness hardly changed among women, at 35.8 percent from 35.4 percent, but up almost two points among men to 19.2 percent from 17.3 percent.

By age, unemployment fell by over a point to 21.6 percent from 23 percent among the middle-aged (35-44).

It barely changed among those 45 and older from 15.8 percent to 16.1 percent.

It rose by over two points to 51.8 percent from 49.6 percent among the youth (18-24).

It increased by almost three points to 34.5 percent from 31.8 percent among the intermediate youth (25-34).

SWS said joblessness is based on the traditional definition of not working at present and also looking for a job. Those without a job but not looking for one are excluded from the labor force.

The SWS noted that since April 2005, the official definition of unemployed requires that the individual is not working, is looking for work and is available for work.

Applying the official definition, the jobless rate among adults 18 years old and above would be 18.2 percent or an estimated 7.1 million Filipinos, the SWS said.

The official definition of employed, on the other hand, includes those who, during the week before the interview date, are at least 15 years old and are either at work or with a job but not at work.

The survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide and has sampling error margins plus or minus three percentage points for national and plus or minus six percentage points for area percentages.