Nearly part of the Philippine workforce, or 27.3 million people, have lost their jobs largely due to the economic repercussions and the closure of businesses amid coronavirus closures, according to a survey by a local pollster.
Social Weather Stations (SWS), a well-known Philippine survey company, found that 45.4% of the country’s workforce was unemployed or lost their jobs due to the pandemic, breaking the national unemployment record of 34.4% set in March 2012.
“Half lost their jobs/livelihoods with the COVID-19 crisis,” SWS said in a survey report published on their website.
“Adult unemployment has been higher for women than for men, with the unemployment gap between women and men ranging from 10 to 26 numbers since December 2011,” SWS said. “As in previous surveys, 18- to 24-year-olds are the highest unemployed compared to other age groups.”
On Monday, the Philippine government did not question the effects of the survey, which was released a day earlier, while President Rodrigo Duterte announced that from Wednesday, the government would lighten some 40 COVID-19s that it imposed in the metropolitan domain of Manila and others densely populated domains. Luzon Island in early August.
The survey of 1,555 adults nationwide from July 3-6 is the first unemployment survey this year and the first to measure the effects of the blockade that began in March, according to the pollster. Adult unemployment averaged 19.9% last year.
In reaction to the investigation, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the government was not surprised by the figure, but added that the public is “happy” that the whole country is not unemployed.
“Will you be surprised that you lost your jobs when the blockade of our economy came months away? I’m glad we’re not 100 percent unemployed,” Roque told reporters.
“It may have been worse because what we’re experiencing is a total blockade,” he said.
Roque said the economy must soon reopen to allow Filipinos to return to work.
“I belong to the school of the idea that we can live with COVID-19, we will have to be informed to live our lives with COVID-19. The solution is for us to open up the economy. Many will remain unemployed if the closure continues,” Roque said.
Improved quarantine to lighten
After meeting with his cabinet secretaries monday night, President Duterte announced that the so-called enhanced quarantine classification for Manila city, as well as for the neighboring populated provinces of Cavite, Bulacan, Laguna and Rizal, will be at ease on August 19.
These spaces were subject to strict blocking regulations prior to this month in reaction to calls from the medical network, as they were shown to have increased coVID-19 cases.
“The economy has collapsed, now we are all experiencing economic haemorrhage,” Duterte said in a televised confrontation Monday night, in which he announced that the Philippines Capital Region and other regions would return to the network’s so-called general quarantine via August 31.
The economy fell into recession after gross domestic product fell 16.5% in the current quarter, its worst three-month functionality in 39 years, officials said on August 6. The April-June contraction was the worst since 1981, when the government began keeping records of economic functionality.
Economic knowledge came when the Ministry of Health reported on Monday 18 more deaths through COVID-19, bringing the national total to 2,681. In addition, it recorded 3,314 additional infections, bringing the total to 164,474. The Philippines leads all East Asian countries in showed cases of coronavirus, according to the latest knowledge of disease experts at Johns Hopkins University, based in the United States.
Worldwide, there have been more than 21.7 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 776,000 deaths, according to experts.
Secretary tries for a moment
Also on Monday, Roque announced that the Secretary of the Interior, Eduardo Ao, a member of the national organization that opposes COVID-19, had tested positive for the virus for the time being and was quarantined.
The secretary of the house had already tested positive in March. At the time, Ao stated that he had no quarantined symptoms at home.
Because Ao meets with Duterte and the rest of the firm, other members have opted for quarantine to be safe, Roque said.
“That’s why I refer. It’s a non-public resolution because I’m in the same position as Secretary Ao,” Roque said, adding that Duterte did not have a known close contact with the House Secretary.
He said Duterte “is in perpetual isolation because no one can manipulate him.”
“Every time we meet him, there’s a velvet rope holding him at least two feet from everyone,” Roque said. “So that no one can approach the president.”