Jobless rate eased to 5.2% in July, lowest during pandemic

The number of unemployed Filipinos decreased to 2.6 million in July this year from 2.76 million in April, according to preliminary results of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s latest labor force survey.

This pushed down the unemployment rate to 5.2 percent, the lowest on record since 17.6 percent in April 2020 at the onset of the pandemic.

National Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a briefing the number of Filipinos who were of employment age and were actively looking for a job went down by 160,000 from 2.76 million in the April survey and by 627,000 from 3.23 million in July 2021.

“July numbers are very promising,” Mapa said. “The unemployment rate is the lowest since October 2019 before the pandemic.”

Last July, there were 49.99 million Filipinos 15 years and older who had jobs or were looking for jobs. They represent less than two-thirds — 65.2 percent — of the country’s labor force.