philippine labor: unemployment at record high 1QTR 2009

First Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey: Adult unemployment at record-high 34.2%, 13% of them left old job, 12% were retrenched

Social Weather Stations

The First Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey, fielded over February 20-23, 2009, found adult unemployment rising to record-high 34.2%, or an estimated 14 million, from 27.9% or estimated 11 million from the previous quarter.

The survey also found that of those unemployed, 13% voluntarily left their old job, while 12% were retrenched, consisting of 9% who were laid off and 3% whose previous contact was not renewed.

Unemployment has been over 20% since 2005

Adult unemployment in the SWS surveys has been 20% and above since May 2005, except for December 2007 when it was 17.5% [Chart 1, Table 1].

In the SWS data series which began in 1993, unemployment was below 15% until March 2004, and then ranged from 16.5% to 19.0% from August 2004 to March 2005.

 

source: http://www.sws.org.ph/