PH Government Says Unemployment Rate Jumped to 3.9 Million Due To COVID-19 Restrictions
The unemployment rate has jumped to 3.9 million or worsened to 8.1 percent for the month of August 2021 due to lockdowns.
The Philippine government reported that the number of unemployed Filipinos has swelled to 8.1 percent in many business establishments across the National Capital Region.
Thousands of fresh college graduates who supposed to enter the labor industry for the first time have been affected by COVID-19 related lockdowns. The restrictions temporarily stopped jobs.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released a data showing that over 3.88 million Filipinos were jobless for the month of August. It is the highest rate since the 8.7 percent in April 2021 due to the enhanced community quarantine.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said that the COVID-19 restrictions were slowly easing resumed employment generation and suspend some job opportunities.
National Statistician Dennis Mapa pointed out the increase of unemployment rate whenever the government implements enhanced community quarantine. The Alert Level 4 in Metro Manila indicates that 23.3 million Filipino workers have been affected by the work disruption.
However, Chua said that the increasing vaccination and conversion in tack to granular lockdowns could lead to resumption of some job opportunities as the COVID-19 cases drops.
“The good news is that with the cases going down, we are seeing that starting October, we will have more opportunity to further bring down our quarantine classification. That is what we need to do alongside vaccination to hasten the reopening of our economy,” Chua said.
The Socioeconomic Planning Secretary recommends the continuous implementation of prevent-detect-isolate-treat-reintegrate strategy to manage the risks properly. It could also help for the resumption of physical classes, family activities and gatherings in high risk areas.
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