Joblessness among adult Filipinos has reached its highest since 2016 with 23.9 percent or about 10.9 million individuals with no job in the past three months, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results showed.
The nationwide survey conducted from March 23 to 27 with 1,200 respondents found that 23.9 percent of Filipinos (10.9 million) were unemployed.
This is 8.2 points above the 15.7 percent (7.2 million adults) in December 2017, a point above the March 2017 rate of 22.9 and the highest since the 25.1 percent in December 2016.
According to SWS, the latest adult joblessness rate consisted of those who voluntarily left their old jobs at 12.6 percent (5.8 million adults), those who involuntarily lost their jobs at 7.7 percent (3.5 million adults), and first-time job seekers at 3.5 percent (1.6 million adults).
The proportion of those who resigned or left their old jobs voluntarily rose by 4.3 points, from 8.3 percent in December 2017 to 12.6 in March 2018.
Those who were retrenched increased by 1.8 points, from 5.9 percent in December 2017 to 7.7 percent in March 2018. (Ellalyn de Vera-Ruiz)
