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| PSA's labor force survey showed that the country's employment rate reached 95.5% in October 2022, the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020. |
The Philippine employment rate reached 95.5% in October 2022, the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country in January 2020, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)'s latest labor force survey (PSA).
The recent employment figures translate to 47.11 million employed people, an increase from 95.0% in September 2022. The number of employed people is also higher than the 43.82 million recorded during the same period last year.
Unemployment has also fallen to pre-pandemic levels of 4.5%, down from 5.0% in September 2022. This equates to 2.24 million unemployed Filipinos, a decrease of approximately 256,000 from September's 2.50 million unemployed Filipinos and a decrease of 1.26 million from October 2021.
Underemployment has also decreased to 14.2% or 6.67 million Filipinos. This is lower than the 16.1% in October 2021 and the 15.4% in September 2022.
According to the PSA, 49.35 million Filipinos, or 64.2%, will be in the labor force in October 2022.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) expressed confidence that the Philippine economy will recover quickly from the pandemic.
"The country's sustained labor market recovery reinforces our confidence that our policies and interventions to revitalize our economy are working," said NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.
"While employment numbers have improved, we recognize that we must increase our efforts to create more and higher-quality jobs by improving workforce employability." "We must do this if we are to pursue economic transformation," he added.
Balisacan also stated that the return of full face-to-face classes has "paved the way for us to immediately address the pandemic's learning losses."
"Also, with their children back in school, stay-at-home parents—particularly mothers—are able to pursue more income opportunities," he concluded..