MANILA, Philippines—As the COVID-19 pandemic and community quarantine measures taken to fight it dragged on, more Filipinos went job-hunting in February but 4.2 million were unemployed and 7.9 million took pay cuts from shorter working hours, the government said on Tuesday (March 30).
Citing results of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) labor force survey conducted in February, National Statistician Dennis Mapa told a press briefing that the labor force — the total number of employed and jobless Filipinos aged 15 and above who were active in the labor market — rose to 47.3 million last month from 45.2 million in January.
Mapa said the increase in la…
Keep on reading: Pandemic casualties: 4.2M lose jobs, 7.9M suffer pay cuts