What Is Underemployment and Why Is it Rising?

(SPOT.ph) The number of underemployed Filipinos increased in November 2022 as more people were hired in part-time jobs during the holiday season, the Philippine Statistics Authority said on Friday, January 6.

The underemployment rate was recorded at 14.4% from 14.2%, which translates to some 7.16 million underemployed Filipinos in November 2022 from 6.67 million in the previous month, according to the preliminary results of the latest Labor Force Survey of the PSA.

Despite the slight month-on-month increase, the November 2022 underemployment rate was lower than the November 2021 figure at 16.8% or roughly 7.62 million Filipinos, it added.

The Labor Force Survey results also showed that more Filipinos were employed in November 2022, with the unemployment rate going down to 4.2% from 4.5% in October 2022 and 6.5% in November 2021. This was the lowest unemployment rate since April 2005 and translates to only 2.18 million unemployed Filipinos, the PSA said.

The November 2022 employment rate was also the highest since April 2005 at 95.8%, or about 49.71 million Filipinos, compared to 95.5% in October 2022, equivalent to 47.11 million people. This results in a 67.5% labor force participation rate, which means that about 51.88 million Filipinos 15 years old and above were either employed or unemployed.

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Why is the underemployment rate increasing?

The PSA defines underemployed as "employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or an additional job, or have a new job with longer working hours."

This means that while underemployed persons currently have jobs, they are either only working part-time or are looking for a job that would allow them to work for longer hours.

According to national statistician Dennis Mapa, the higher underemployment rate in November 2022 was related to the increased employment during the holiday season.

"Kapag October, November, December, marami yung ineempleyo because malakas ang ating economic activities because of the holidays, but a portion of them are not really employed full-time," Mapa said in a press briefing.

"Nakikita natin ito dahil tumaas talaga yung ating labor force participation rate at yung employed persons, so may mga expectation na tumaas yung underemployment," he added.

Most of the underemployed individuals in November 2022 came from the wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, and construction industries, Mapa said.

How to look for additional, part-time job

If you are an employee looking for an additional job or longer work hours, here are some websites offering online part-time jobs:

Course Hero

Course Hero is an online learning platform that helps students connect with tutors around the world. This website allows academic degree holders to work as tutors in various subjects such as science, mathematics, engineering, medicine, and social sciences.

Virtual tutors in Course Hero can earn up to $1,500 or P85,500 per month, depending on the number of questions they answer in the platform, their subject category, the quality of their answers, among others.

Since Course Hero does not have a fixed working schedule, tutors can answer questions any time they are free using just their laptop, desktop, or even a smartphone.

Upwork

Upwork is a job search website that links business clients to freelance workers. Part-time job hunters only need to indicate their skills on the website and a list of job openings with their corresponding rates will be made available to them.

Depending on the nature of work, part-time workers in Upwork can be paid per hour or per project. You will also need to set up a PayPal account where payments can be sent or link your existing bank accounts to Upwork.

Remote Staff

Remote Staff was created specifically to help Filipinos find remote jobs with international clients.

While other employment websites only enumerate the part-time jobs available to applicants, Remote Staff goes a step further by matching your skills to their current job openings and assisting you in getting hired by their overseas clients.