Economist sees further decline in unemployment rate

MANILA – The country's unemployment rate will likely continue to go down in the remaining months of the year as the demand for the Christmas season will help create more employment, an economist said on Thursday.

"Unemployment rate is expected to seasonally ease further towards the Christmas holiday season [as] the seasonal increase in spending, demand, sales would temporarily require the hiring of more workers," Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort told the Philippine News Agency in a Viber message.

Ricafort said unemployment rate could further go down to 4 percent or even lower from the 4.4 percent in August this year.

He added that restaurants, caterers, those in travel and tourism and other service businesses and industries are expected to hire additional workers due to the increased demand during the holiday season.

"This has been a unique pattern seen for many years," he said.

According to Ricafort, the lifting of coronavirus disease 2019 restrictions is a big contributor to the projected decline in unemployment.

"[The unemployment rate] could even be lower than the 4.2 percent immediate low posted in December last year and [could be] among the lowest since revised records started in 2005," he said.

Ricafort said, however, that there could be some slight pick up in the unemployment rate after the seasonal increase for temporary employment opportunities during the holiday spending rush.

"[This] will be offset though by the fact that there would be more working days and fewer holidays upon crossing the new year," said Ricafort.

The Philippine Statistics Authority will release on Nov. 8, 2023, the official September labor force data.

As of end-August, the number of unemployed Filipinos was estimated at 2.21 million. (PNA)