MANILA - More Filipinos are jobless and pessimistic that there will be more available jobs in the next 12 months, results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed Saturday.

The September survey found that around 9.8 million Filipinos or 22 percent have no jobs, higher than the 8.6 million or 19.7 percent in June this year.

SWS defines jobless Filipinos as those who voluntarily left their old jobs, those who were retrenched, and first-time job seekers.

Of the 9.8 million jobless Filipinos, 4.1 million were retrenched, 3.7 million resigned from their old jobs, and the rest were looking for employment for the first time.

The joblessness rate was highest in Metro Manila at 26.4 percent followed by Balance Luzon at 22.9 percent, Mindanao at 19.7 percent, and Visayas at 19.6 percent.

SWS also noted that joblessness was higher among the self-rated poor at 23.7 percent compared to the non-poor at 20.4 percent.

PESSIMISM ON JOB AVAILABILITY

More Filipinos are also pessimistic that there will be more jobs available to them in the next 12 months.

Pessimism rose by a point to 16 percent from 15 percent in June this year. Optimism on job availability also fell by 8 points to 39 percent from 47 percent in June.

SWS said the proportion of those who say there will be no change in job availability rose "from 24 percent (correctly rounded) in June to 27 percent in September."

Creating more jobs is one of the top national concerns of Filipinos along with controlling the rising prices of goods, and increasing the pay of workers, a September survey of pollster Pulse Asia revealed.

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The September 15 to 23 SWS survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 Filipinos aged 18 and above and has a +/-6 percent margin of error for national percentages.

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