Calibrated strategies open door for jobless Filipinos

MANILA – The recalibration of government strategies against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) helped boost employment in the country, Malacañang said Friday.

Presidential Spokesperson and Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a statement that the decline in adult joblessness, as indicated in the Social Weather Stations (SWS) Dec. 12-16, 2021 survey released Thursday, proved the effectiveness of anti-coronavirus measures.

He said the Palace is expecting a further improvement, given the government’s concrete plans to sustain the country’s economic rebound.

The SWS poll showed that the average joblessness for 2021 is 25.7 percent, down by 11.7 percentage points from the record-high 37.4 percent average joblessness for 2020.

“This is a clear indication how effective our calibrated strategy of shifting to Alert Level System to further reopen the economy – where more businesses are operating and more Filipinos are able to go to work – while ramping our Covid-19 vaccination drive,” Andanar stated.

The SWS poll found that joblessness remained highest in Metro Manila (34 percent), followed by Balance Luzon (29 percent), Mindanao (18 percent), and the Visayas (17 percent).

Adult joblessness fell in urban areas (from 30 percent in September 2021 to 26.6 percent in December 2021), as well as among women (from 32.3 percent to 31.2 percent), individuals aged 25 to 34 (from 33.9 percent to 32 percent), as well as among elementary graduates (from 18.7 percent to 16.7 percent) and junior high school graduates (from 31.1 percent to 28.5 percent).

However, the SWS noted an increase in joblessness in rural areas (from 20 percent to 22.8 percent), as well as among men (from 19.3 percent to 20.5 percent) and age groups 18 to 24 (from 51.5 percent to 58.8 percent), 35 to 44 (from 16 percent to 22.4 percent), and 45 and above (from 15.6 percent to 15.9 percent).

Joblessness also rose among non-elementary graduates (from 10.1 percent to 21.6 percent) and college graduates (from 24.8 percent to 28.4 percent),

Overall, the number of jobless Filipinos recorded in 2021 was still 5.9 percentage points higher than the 19.8 percent average joblessness logged in 2019, according to the survey.

SWS interviewed 1,440 adult Filipinos using sampling error margins of plus/minus 2.6 percent for national percentages.