The recent unemployment rate in the Philippines broke the highest record since December 2016.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE- The joblessness rate in the Philippines smashes record high under Duterte Administration’s period in office.
According to a report in Inquirer, the most recent survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) disclosed that the country has reached the highest level of unemployment rate in five quarters in March.
Amidst the release of the poll result, Malacañang said in a statement during the celebration of the nationwide Labor Day that the “Build Build Build” groundwork program of the present Administration would produce more jobs for Filipinos.
As detailed in the report, the adult joblessness rate obtained from March 23-27 SWS survey shoots up to 23.9 percent, or approximately 10.9 million. On December 2017, the unemployment rate was 15.7 percent, translating to an estimated 7.2 million Filipinos.
The latest poll is exposed to be the highest level of joblessness since December 2016.
In relation to the release of the survey, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque showed confidence that the alarming cases of unemployment in the Philippines would drop sooner.
According to Roque, the impulsive and sudden increase in adult joblessness is customary as the survey was conducted in the course of the graduation season.
“The present survey was conducted March 23 to 27, at a time when many students just finished their last semester in college and are expected to look for jobs, thus, an increase in adult joblessness,” he said, further noting that the government still remain optimistic that the “Build Build Build” project will reduce the figures in the recent poll result.
Aside from the massive changes in the unemployment rate, the survey also bared that the labor force participation rate in the country and the net optimism over the accessibility of jobs also dramatically fell during the survey period last March.
The labor force participation decreased by an estimated 45.8 million, about 0.7 percent to 71.4 percent.
Meanwhile, the net optimism score went down from +41 to +37. Among the respondents, 49 percent said that they are optimistic about finding jobs in a span of 12 months, 4 percent lower than the net optimism rate in December 2017 which was 53 percent.
The survey was conducted to 1,200 respondents from any areas in the country. It has been found that the dramatic upsurge in the unemployment rate is felt in all regions except Metro Manila where it only dropped by .5 percent.