PH employment rate at 95.5% in September; Unemployment rate down

Transcript

00:00 Jobs, jobs, jobs. The cure all pale to the nation's economic woes. And in September,

00:06 the country had a good dose to heal a few ailments hobbling the country. A not-so-shabby

00:11 number of 2.5 million more souls found a means to a living last September than in the same

00:17 month last year. Our Ryan Leciges has more good news after yesterday's welcome prelude

00:23 of a sub-5% inflation rate last month.

00:29 The employment situation continues to improve in the Philippines. The latest PSA data recorded

00:34 a 95.5% employment rate in the country for the month of September. This is higher than

00:40 the 95.0% recorded in the same month in 2022. It is also expected there will be more jobs

00:47 in a lower unemployment rate in the country until the end of the year due to the so-called

00:52 seasonal jobs. The retail trade sector and services are expected to boost the employment

00:57 rate.

00:58 "We're seeing increases, just a little bit. Here in the month of October, November, December,

01:05 normally that's where it really increases."

01:07 On the other hand, the unemployment rate in the country or the number of unemployed is

01:11 also on a slide. 4.5% or equivalent to 2.6 million people was recorded for the month

01:17 of September 2023. This is less than the 5.0% or equivalent to 2.5 million people for the

01:24 same month last year. But if compared to the month of August, the unemployment rate increased

01:29 slightly by 0.1% or equivalent to 50,000 people.

01:34 "The reason for the increase in unemployment is, well, they are looking for work and they

01:41 are available but there's no work. So that's one. Bad weather contributed actually, but

01:49 not that large. So these are the three reasons. And then another one, the third one is they're

01:56 waiting for rehire or job recall."

01:59 Neda said the government is doing everything in its power to respond to the increase in

02:03 the price of goods and generate more work opportunities in the country.

02:07 "So our interest is to increase this and then make it better quality jobs. That's the

02:14 intent of the Marcos administration."

02:16 Even the matter of wage increase has never been forgotten by the government.

02:20 "We think that currently, actually, the wage setting mechanism is working. Kanina ni report

02:29 ni Sec Legresma that 11 actually of the regional wage boards have already issued yung mga wage

02:38 increases and all of these were decided by consensus. So big sabihin, hindi nagkaroon

02:44 ng mga matitinding. So naging maayos yung usapan."

02:52 Meanwhile, the labor force participation reached 64.1 percent for the month of September, which

02:59 was lower than the 65.2 percent recorded for the same period last year. The survey was

03:04 conducted in over 11,000 houses throughout the country.

03:08 Ryan Leziguez for The Nation.