Current Issues: High Unemployment Rates in the

Philippines Affects both the Economy and Society

Group 3
Ms. Anabelle Clemente
Sto. Domingo Integrated High School
Title of research:
High Unemployment Rates in the Philippines Affects both the Economy and Society

I. The Main Issue or Problem

Unemployment is one of the significant issues present in the Philippines. It
has the highest unemployment rate among members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Lawrence Agcaoili. August 13, 2020). “Preliminary estimates for 2021
reflected that the unemployment rate in the Philippines was at 7.8 percent or
equivalent to about 3.71 million unemployed persons. Across regions, Region IV-A
and the National Capital Region had the highest unemployment rate at 96 percent
followed by the Davao region. Both these regions are located on the island of
Mindanao” (Statista Research Department, May 18, 2022). The unemployed
Filipinos are considered unemployed based on two criteria, either they do not have a
job, or they are currently looking for a job, except for homemakers, students, retired
workers, and disabled person who are not part of the labor force. Most people want
to work or want to have stable jobs. However, job openings are not in abundant in
the country's industry, and it does not have enough jobs to offer thus creating an
excess in workforce in effect pushes the labourers to seek work abroad. And during
this pandemic, joining the labor force got more difficult, especially for those who just
graduated. “The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the entire
population, including the youth. It could even be argued that the youth faced greater
challenges during the pandemic because of the restrictions imposed on mobility. It
was very difficult for them to join the labor force, Angara said in a statement (Wilnard
Bacelonia, August 31, 2022).
The importance of this research is to help us understand the causes of
unemployment and its impacts on the society. It will be help for the economic
planning of the society to increase employment opportunities and other opportunities
in the short and long run. Our research will supply understanding about the
economic impacts as well as the social impacts on the country.

II. Research Questions

This research aims to answer the following questions:

 Are you unemployed? If yes, why?

 How long have you been unemployed?
 Did being unemployed affect your financial status in any way?
 What are its other impacts on you?
  Being unemployed, what is it like in your everyday life?
 Is there any way that the government could do to mitigate the cases of
unemployment or help the people that are unemployed?

III. The Rationale

We have chosen to make a study about unemployment. There are reasons

on why this issue is compelling to us and made us want to draft research about it.
One of the reasons is that we wanted to know about the current state of the people
who lost their jobs or those that cannot find jobs because of unemployment. There
are also case studies that shows unemployment being linked to certain crimes in the
Philippines and there is a need to look more into it. Moreover, job creation and
economic growth are related. Job creation is necessary because, the more people
work the more the economy become stable.
In conclusion, we are compelled to study about unemployment because
people cannot find jobs or losing their jobs, and it is affecting them, their families,
and the economy of the Philippines. There are people who commit crimes to survive
economically because of it. Drafting research about unemployment will help the
country and the society.

IV. The Prior Knowledge

We have a decent amount of knowledge about unemployment. Currently,

we know that these reasons cause unemployment: overpopulation, jobs that need
extra qualifications, and jobs in the Philippines have lower salary than jobs overseas.
We also know that unemployment has bad impacts in the individuals, society, and
economy. It increases poverty and crime rate, laborers are exploited and made to
accept low wages, and reduces the economic development of the country.
And of course, the purpose of this research is to know more about
unemployment. We need to know more about the causes of unemployment and its
bad impacts. Learning from the people about how unemployment affected their lives
would be a relevant information. And lastly, we need to know and formulate ideas on
how to reduce the unemployment rates in the Philippines.

V. Methodology
 This research will employ an explanatory sequential mixed method
approach. This approach will aim at collecting both quantitative and qualitative data
in two separate phases. It will prioritize the gathering and analysis of quantitative
data in addressing the problems of the study. The second phase will include the
gathering and investigation of qualitative data that will explain the quantitative data in
more details.
Mixed methods group will be employed as the research method of this study
as both quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered, examined, and interpreted.
This group will need a researcher to create interpretations across both the
quantitative and qualitative collections of data.
And lastly, our intended audience would be the people affected by the issue,
employers, and the government.

References:
Lawrence Agcaoili. August 13, 2020. ‘Philippine jobless rate highest in Southeast
Asia’. Philstar. https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/08/13/2034814/philippine-
jobless-rate-highest-southeast-asia
Statista Research Department, May 18, 2022. Rate of unemployment Philippines
2021, by region. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1306390/philippines-
rate-of-unemployment-by-region/
Wilnard Bacelonia, August 31, 2022. Angara to look into youth unemployment,
underemployment. PNA. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1182576