Positive gains for PH labor market

NIGHT OWL

Even before President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. won the presidency, he has been emphasizing the need to create more jobs and livelihood opportunities in order to bounce back from the pandemic. His administration aimed for the full reopening of the economy to help accelerate job generation.

We are now seeing early gains. According to the latest Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), unemployment rate dropped to new record-low since the onset of the pandemic. As of September 2022, unemployment rate is at 5.0 percent, significantly lower than the 8.9 percent recorded in September 2021.

According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the significant de-escalation of community quarantine restrictions translates to an employment creation of 4.0 million year-on-year, bringing the total employment to 47.6 million in September 2022.

Employment growth was observed ac