Unemployment rate in the Philippines skyrockets amid coronavirus pandemic

The Philippines' unemployment rate jumped to a record 17.7 percent during the coronavirus lockdown equivalent to around 7.3 million jobless Filipinos amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced on Friday, June 5. It reflected the effect of economic shutdown.

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"Unfortunately, this is going to get worse, given that this is for the quarter ending April and of course the lockdown lasted more than that," Nomura Securities senior economist for ASEAN Euben Paracuelles told ANC.

"I think there’s quite a bit of an urgent need to really push fiscal measures fairly quickly and in a sizable way," he said.

The affected sectors are:

• arts, entertainment, and recreation sector posted the largest drop in employment, where 54% of workers lost their jobs. From 436,000 in April 2019, there were only 200,000 workers in April 2020
• electricity, gas, steam, and air-conditioning supply sector recorded a 43.1% drop. From 108,000 workers, only 61,000 were employed in April 2020
• information and communication (-40.6%)
• accommodation and food service activities (-35.8%)
• constructionn (-33.8%) 

Malacañang said it was "unsurprised" with the report as it promised Filipinos that a "resiliency program" was in the works.

"This is an obvious effect of the economic shutdown when the entire Luzon area was in an enhanced community quarantine where most businesses were closed and many people were out of work and stayed at home," Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said.

"A resiliency program, such as but not limited to active labor market programs, job matching and skills upgrading, is likewise being prepared to help insulate our people from future similar crises," he added.

The Department of Labor and Employment said that it was seeking P20 billion to help small and medium employers cover 25 to 50 percent of their payroll costs.