MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Tuesday (September 7) that the country’s unemployment rate was reduced to 6.9% in July 2021.
This means over 1.07 million individuals were hired during the said period based on PSA’s latest Labor Force Survey.
The report showed that the number of unemployed Filipinos reduced from 4.14 million in April 2021 to only 3.07 million in July.
Among the sectors that marked additional employment include administrative and support services, construction, education, arts, entertainment, and recreation as well as professional, scientific, and technical sectors.
“Talagang nakita lang na maraming nagkaroon ng trabaho kaya’t bumaba ang ating unemployment rate sa 6.9% nitong July. Compared sa 8.7% noong April and the past months, nasa 7.7% tayo so talagang marami naman ang nakahanap ng trabaho,” said PSA’s National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Undersecretary Dennis Mapa.
The PSA, meanwhile, reported that though the country’s employment rate increased to 93.1% from April to July this year, around 1.6 million Filipinos lost their jobs during the same period.
Among the sectors that cut jobs include the agriculture and forestry sectors, wholesale and retail trade as well as mining.
The PSA also said that around two million individuals opted not to join the current labor force, citing the pandemic and the difficulty in landing a job as reasons.
“Nakita namin na ang rason nila ay dahil sa COVID-19 pandemic. That is 5.9 percentage points at mayroong 1.1% na nagsabing mahirap makahanap ng trabaho kaya hindi na sila nag-participate,” Mapa said. –MNP (with reports from Rey Pelayo)
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