SIXTY-NINE percent of adult Filipinos in the country found it “hard” to get a job these days, results of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted in March 2023 showed.

The survey, conducted from March 26 to 29 and released Thursday, May 25, 2023, also revealed that 11 percent of the respondents said finding a job is “easy” these days, 16 percent said it is “neither” easy nor hard, and four percent said they “don’t know.”

The SWS also said that finding a job has always been hard since the time of former President Benigno Aquino in 2011.

The optimism on job availability, however, has remained moderate; with 50 percent of Filipinos believing that there will be more jobs in the next 12 months, while 26 percent believe there will be no changes in the number of job vacancies.

At least 10 percent of the respondents also said that there will be fewer jobs in the next 12 months, while 14 percent said they “don’t know” whether job vacancies will increase or not.

According to the SWS, Filipinos have been more optimistic about job availability since 2009, except during the height of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

The survey was done through face-to-face interviews and involved 1,200 Filipino adults, or those aged 19 years old and above nationwide.

“SWS employs its own staff for questionnaire design, sampling, fieldwork, data processing and analysis and does not outsource any of its survey operations,” the SWS said. (LMY)