Eastern Visayas registers 14.3% unemployment rate in April 2020

By PSA-8
June 26, 2020

TACLOBAN CITY – Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic scare, about 251 thousand persons in Eastern Visayas labor force were unemployed in April 2020. This translates to a double-digit unemployment rate of 14.3 percent, or 10.3 percentage points higher than the 4.0 percent rate recorded in April 2019. The region ranked fifth among 17 regions with low unemployment rate in the country.

Meanwhile, employment rate (ER) in April 2020 was estimated at 85.7 percent, making it the fifth among regions with high employment rate in the country (Table 1). This figure is 10.3 percentage points lower than the 96.0 percent ER recorded in April 2019. Employment rate is the proportion of employed persons to the total labor force.

The underemployed or those employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours was estimated at 328 thousand in April 2020. This figure translates to an underemployment rate of 21.8 percent, higher than the 18.6 percent recorded in the same period last year. The region recorded the eighth highest underemployment rate in the country.

Out of the estimated 3.1 million population 15 years old and over in April 2020, about 1.7 million were economically active or in the labor force. This number translates to a Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of 56.2 percent. This figure is 5.2 percentage points lower compared with the 61.4 percent LFPR in the same period a year ago. Eastern Visayas registered the eighth highest LFPR among regions.

Data were based on the preliminary estimates released by the Philippine Statistics Authority from the April 2020 LFS round.