SWS: unemployment rate increases

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MANILA — The latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) indicated an increase in the number of unemployed Filipinos by about 30,000 in the 2nd quarter.

Unemployment rate among Filipinos at least 18 years old was raised from 25.7 percent or 11.5 million individuals in March, 2014, to 25.9 percent or 11.8 million people in June, 2014.

The survey which was conducted from June 27-30 with 1,200 respondents was first published in Business World last Monday.

During the face to face interviews with the respondents, the survey found out that most of the unemployed are adults who quit their jobs (11.4% to 13.2%), those who retrenched (10.7% to 8.8%), and the first time job-seekers (3.3% to 3.6%).

The 8.8 percent retrenched group is composed of 6.3 percent who had their contracts not renewed, 1 percent who had employers who stopped operations, and 1.5 who percent had been laid off.

“Adult joblessness has traditionally been dominated by those who voluntarily left their old jobs and who lost their jobs due to economic circumstances beyond their control,” SWS said.

Though the highest recorded rate was in 2009 at 34.4 percent, the survey noted since May 2005, unemployment rate is already above 20 percent.

But this is with the exception of several months when the rate went down to 19.9 percent last March 2006.