The country’s unemployment rate declined in January this year to 6.4% or to 2.93 million individuals, down from the 3.96 million data in January 2021 and below the 6.6% in December 2021.
Based on the January 2022 Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority, the employment rate for January 2022 also improved from 91.2% in January 2021 to 93.6%.
“The number of employed persons increased by 1.77 million from 41.25 million in January 2021 to 43.02 million in January 2022,” the PSA said.
In a statement, Acting Presidential Spokesperson Martin Andanar said the government attributes “the improvement in the employment situation to the effective recalibration of our strategies with the shift to Alert Level System.”
“With more parts of the country being classified to Alert Level 1, our Economic Team estimates 170,000 less unemployed workers over the next quarter,” he said.
“Government, meanwhile, continues to provide targeted relief for the transport and agriculture sectors and unconditional cash transfers for the bottom 50% of households amid inflationary pressures,” he added.
In a separate statement, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua said they are looking forward “to an improvement in employment outcomes” with the containment of COVID-19 transmission and the shift to Alert Level 1.
He also noted the impact of the recent Omicron surge in the country’s employment.
There are currently 48 areas under Alert Level 1 across the country, allowing the full on-site operational capacity of public transportation and other establishments. – Report from Mela Lesmoras/AG-rir
