The country's unemployment rate inched up in March on the back of the current African Swine Fever (ASF) and the El Niño phenomenon that severely affected the agriculture sector in the Philippines, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Wednesday.

Data from the state-run statistics bureau showed that the jobless rate in the country reached 3.9 percent in March, higher than the 3.5 percent seen in February.

That means 2.42 million Filipinos were either jobless or out of business in March, up from the 1.8 million unemployed Pinoys in February.

In a briefing, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said the state-run statistics bureau noted a 202,000 decline in hog farming for the month on the back of the ASF.

Mapa said the ASF has already affected the hog production in some provinces which led to a reduction in their outputs.

He added that the El Niño phenomenon affected the outputs in the agriculture sector, which also affected the livelihood of the farmers.

"One of those greatly affected in terms of employment is the agriculture sector, which also includes fisheries. This is really related to planting, harvesting, and growing," Mapa said.

"In the past, this was indeed the case because it's related to production. So, of course, when production decreases, our operators also reduce the number of workers," Mapa added.

He also noted a decline of 214,000 jobs in the construction sector. He said that there were two main groups that saw monthly drops: building construction workers lost 174,000 jobs, and electrical installers lost 53,000 jobs.

Unemployment down

The rate of underemployment went down to 11 percent, which means that workers are getting better jobs that are more stable.

However, 5.39 million people said they wanted more work hours or better job prospects.

Wage and salary workers still hold the lion's share of the employed population at 61.4 percent of the total 49.15 million employed individuals.

The self-employed sector came in second at 27 percent, followed by the agriculture sector at 21.3 percent.

The industry sector also landed in fourth place with 18.1 percent.

Employers who worked on a farm or business run by their family made up the smallest group, at 2.0 percent.

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the government plans to enrich the content of training programs for workers and employers by integrating courses on advanced productivity tools such as data science, analytics, and artificial intelligence. 

“For the government to sustain a robust labor market and reap the benefits of the demographic dividend, it must ensure that people are healthy, educated, and skilled. To facilitate the development of soft and hard skills among workers and create a more agile and adaptive workforce, we at NEDA continue to advocate for the passage of the Apprenticeship Bill, Lifelong Learning Bill, and the Enterprise Productivity Act,” Balisacan said.

In addition, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards and National Wages and Productivity Commission’s adherence to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s instruction to conduct a timely review of the minimum wage rate and to study the improvement of the wage adjustment process will help in sustaining employment gains while safeguarding worker’s purchasing power amid elevated prices.