Joblessness among adult Filipinos rose by 1.2 million in the third quarter of 2018, a survey held by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.
The poll, conducted from September 15 to 23 among 1,500 Filipino adults, found adult joblessness at 22 percent or around 9.8 million adults.
This was 2.3 points higher than the 19.7 percent or 8.6 million adults in June, but 1.8 points below the 23.9 percent (10.9 million) in March, according to SWS.
Of the 22 percent in September, SWS said 9.2 percent or 4.1 million adults were retrenched, 8.4 percent or 3.7 million left their old jobs, and 4.4 percent or 2 million were first-time job seekers.
“The 9.2 percent who were retrenched consisted of 6.6 percent whose previous contracts were not renewed, 1.6 percent who were laid off, and 1.0 percent whose employers closed operations,” the polling firm said.
It said optimism that there will be more jobs fell by eight points, from 47 percent in June to 39 percent in September, while pessimism that there will be fewer jobs rose by one point from 15 percent to 16 percent.
The same survey also found the adult labor force participation rate at 69.3 percent, or an estimated 44.4 million adults.
“This is a 1.0-point increase from the 68.3 percent (estimated 43.8 million adults) labor force participation rate in June 2018,” SWS added.
The third quarter survey, using face-to-face interviews among 1,500 adults nationwide, had sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, ±4 percent for Balance Luzon, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao.