By Naomi Tiburcio
Some 1.9 million additional Filipinos gained jobs in February 2021 compared to January 2021, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show.
Among the 11,095 households surveyed in the February 2021 Labor Force Survey nationwide, there were 43.2 million individuals employed, more than last month’s 41.2 million employed.
This puts the employment rate for February at 91.2%.
Meanwhile, 4.2 million Filipinos were recorded to be unemployed in February versus the previous month. The unemployment rate in February was at 8.8%, slightly higher than January’s 8.7% when 4 million Filipinos were recorded jobless.
Meanwhile, 7.9 million individuals are considered underemployed, a figure higher by 1.3 million than January 2021’s 6.6 million.
This puts the underemployment rate at 18.2%.
The subsectors with the highest employment are wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; other service activities;
agriculture and forestry; transportation and storage; public administration and defense; and compulsory social security.
On the other hand , the subsectors with the lowest number of jobs are accommodation and food service activities; administrative and support service activities; mining and quarrying; and electricity, gas, steam, and air-conditioning supply.
PSA explored the monthly release of the Labor Force Survey amid the pandemic in order to produce “high frequency data on labor and employment” for the IATF’s COVID-19 policy-making.
Since March to May 2020 during the imposition of the Enhanced Community Quarantine, around 8.7 million jobs were lost.
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s economic managers say they are determined to work for the restoration of jobs in the coming months.
“As we carefully relaxed our restrictions, more jobs were gradually restored, and the total number of jobs created since April last year at 9.3 million led to employment exceeding pre-COVID levels in February 2021,” the statement of the economic managers read.
Amid the imposition of ECQ in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal until April 4, the government is closely monitoring economic data to deliver interventions, particularly to the poor.
“We assure the Filipino people that the Duterte administration will not squander this opportunity to slow down the spread of the virus and recalibrate our COVID-19 response strategies,” the economic managers said.
