Employed Filipinos total 44.6M in July, down from 48.8M in June

The Philippine economy lost more than 4 million jobs between July and June this year, with data released Friday by the Philippine Statistics Authority showing the number of employed Filipinos plunging to 44.6 million in July from 48.8 million in June.

The number of employed in July last year was recorded at 47.4 million.

Economic Planning Undersecretary and National Statistician Dennis Mapa said the labor force survey for July showed that job losses were in retail trade and in agriculture because of recent typhoons. 

He said labor force participation also declined as more than 2 million Filipinos decided to just do household duties, around 1 million claimed they were too young to work, while around 365,000 said they can find work.

Data showed the unemployment rate rose to 4.8 percent in July from 4.5 percent in June,  with the percentage increase due mainly to the decline in the labor force participation in July.

The PSA reported that the number of Filipinos who were either employed or jobless stood at 46.9 million in July. This translates to 60.1 percent participation in the labor force, or people aged 15 years and older. The labor force participation rate was 66.1 percent in June.

The number of underemployed persons—those with jobs but expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional, or to have a new job with longer hours of work—total 7.10 million translating to an underemployment rate of 15.9 percent.

On average, employed persons worked 42.3 hours per week.