Employment Rate in August 2022 is Estimated at 94.7 Percent

Table A-1. Results from the August 2022 Labor Force Survey (LFS)

Notes:
f Final Estimates
p Estimates are preliminary and may change
Source: Philippine Statistics Authority, Labor Force Survey

Highlights of the August 2022 Labor Force Survey

a. Employment rate in August 2022 was estimated at 94.7 percent. This was higher than the recorded employment rate in the same period last year, which was estimated at 91.9 percent, but was slightly lower than the 94.8 percent estimate in July 2022. In terms of magnitude, the number of employed persons was estimated at 47.87 million while it was at 44.23 million for the same period last year. In July 2022, the number of employed persons was 47.39 million. (Tables A and 2)

b. The labor force participation rate (LFPR) in August 2022 was estimated at 66.1 percent, the highest reported rate since January of this year. The second and third highest were in March 2022 and July 2022 with 65.4 percent and 65.2 percent, respectively. LFPR in August 2021 was registered at 63.6 percent. (Table A)

c. The number of unemployed persons in August 2022 increased to 2.68 million from 2.60 million in July 2022, registering a month-on-month increase of 78.64 thousand unemployed individuals. However, the number of unemployed persons in August 2022 was lower by 1.20 million compared with the number of unemployed persons in August 2021. (Table 3)

In terms of rates, a lower unemployment rate of 5.3 percent was posted in August 2022 compared with the 8.1 percent recorded in the same period last year, but it was 0.1 percentage point higher than in July 2022. (Table A)

d. The average hours worked by an employed person in August 2022 remained unchanged at 40.5 hours per week compared with that in July 2022. However, this was higher than the average hours worked in the same period last year at 39.6 hours per week. (Tables A and 2)

e. Underemployment rate in August 2022 was recorded at 14.7 percent. This was equivalent to 7.03 million employed persons who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work. In July 2022, this was registered at 13.8 percent, while in August 2021, the estimate was the same at 14.7 percent.

Visible underemployment rate or the proportion of employed persons working less than 40 hours in a week was estimated at 9.4 percent in August 2022, lower than the estimated rates in the same month last year at 10.4 percent. On the other hand, invisible underemployment rate increased from 4.2 percent in August 2021 to 5.3 percent in August 2022. (Table A)

f. By broad industry group, the services sector continued its dominance among the sectors, having the highest share in terms of the number of employed persons which accounted for 59.9 percent. The agriculture and the industry sectors accounted for 22.6 percent and 17.5 percent share, respectively, of the 47.87 million employed persons in August 2022. (Table 1)

Year-on-year, from August 2021 to August 2022, the top five sub-sectors with the largest increases in the number of employed persons were as follows:

a. Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (1.54 million);
b. Accommodation and food service activities (479 thousand);
c. Administrative and support service activities (416 thousand);
d. Transportation and storage (349 thousand); and
e. Education (288 thousand).

On the other hand, the top five sub-sectors with largest decreases in employment were noted in following:

a. Agriculture and forestry (-140 thousand);
b. Fishing and aquaculture (-124 thousand);
c. Construction (-81 thousand)
d. Manufacturing (-48 thousand); and
e. Information and communication (-12 thousand). (Table B)

Month-on-month changes in the number of employed persons from July 2022 to August 2022, the top five sub-sectors with the largest increases were noted in the following:

a. Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (378 thousand);
b. Transportation and storage (256 thousand);
c. Manufacturing (178 thousand);
d. Financial and insurance activities (83 thousand); and
e. Professional, scientific and technical activities (82 thousand).

In contrast, the top five sub-sectors with the largest drop in the number of employed persons were the following:

a. Fishing and aquaculture (-286 thousand);
b. Construction (-258 thousand);
c. Arts, entertainment and recreation (-64 thousand);
d. Human health and social work activities (-37 thousand); and
e. Real estate activities (-37 thousand). (Table B)

g. The Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) remained higher among men at 76.2 percent compared to women at 55.9 percent LFPR in August 2022. Employment rate for men was also higher at 95.0 percent than women at 94.2 percent. Men had higher underemployment rate (16.5%) compared to their women counterpart (12.2%). (Table D)

h. Youth employment rate in August 2022, which was estimated at 89.2 percent, was the highest reported this year. This translated to 6.81 million employed youth out of the 7.64 million population of youth 15-24 years old who were in the labor force. Youth underemployment rate was registered at 12.5 percent in August 2022, while the unemployment rate, which was estimated at 10.8 percent, was the lowest reported rate this year. Youth Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) was estimated at 38.0 percent, the highest reported rate since January 2022. (Table A)