MANILA, Sept 3 (NNN-PNA) – The number of Filipinos without jobs reached 4.6 million in July, as the country grapples with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippine government’s latest survey data showed today.
“The unemployment rate in July was estimated at 10 percent. This is higher than the unemployment rate of the same month a year ago placed at 5.4 percent, but lower than the record high 17.7 percent during Apr, 2020,” the Philippine National Statistician, Dennis Mapa, said, in a virtual media briefing.
He said the number of unemployed Filipinos over 15 years old was estimated at 4.6 million in July, higher by 2.2 million, compared to the same period a year ago, but lower by 2.7 million from three months ago.
In Metro Manila alone, Mapa said, there are about 929,000 people without jobs, followed by the Calabarzon region, south of Manila, with about 886,000 unemployed, and the Central Luzon region, north of Manila, about 552,000.
“These are the top three regions in terms of the number of unemployed,” Mapa added.
Metro Manila, the epicentre of COVID-19, the Calabarzon and the Central Luzon region have been under lock-down since mid-Mar. The rest of the country is under varying degrees of lock-down restrictions.
The pandemic and lock-down restrictions also led to a significant economic slowdown. The GDP growth rate dropped by 16.5 percent in the second quarter of 2020, the lowest recorded growth since 1981.
With 226,440 total infections, the Philippines now has the most COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia.– NNN-PNA
