May 06, 2022
The employment rate in the Philippines stood at 94.2% in March 2022. This was the highest rate since April 2020, but lower than the employment rate recorded in January 2020 (pre-pandemic) at 94 .7%. In March 2021, the employment rate was 92.9%, according to a study by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The research showed an increase of 1.50 million people employed from February 2022 (45.48 million) to March 2022 (46.98 million). Similarly, a total of 1.64 million employed people were added to the employed population of 45.33 million in March 2021.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the country improved in March 2022 (posted at 5.8%) from 6.4% last month and 7.1% in March 2021. About 2.87 million were unemployed in March 2022, compared to 3.13 million in February. 2022 and 3.44 million in March 2021.
The country’s labor force participation rate in March 2022 continued to rise to 65.4%, the highest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The March 2022 rate was 0.4% higher than the 65.0% rate reported for the same month in 2021, and 1.6% higher than the estimate a month ago.
The average number of hours worked for a person in employment in March 2022 was 40.6 hours. This is less than the average number of hours worked declared by an employed person in February 2022 (40.8 hours) but higher than that declared in March 2021 (39.7 hours).
By sector, the service sectors dominated the labor market, contributing 57.4% of the country’s 46.98 million employed workforce in March 2022. The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for respectively 25.2% and 17.4% of employed persons.
Comparing March 2021 to March 2022, the subsectors with the largest increase were agriculture and forestry (823,000) and administrative and support service activities (447,000). In contrast, construction (-754,000) and wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (-239,000) recorded annual declines.