A study of marketing and data analytics company Kantar has found that while Filipinos remain positive on their financial status in the next 12 months, majority are taking an extra job or starting a business to have an additional income source and make ends meet.
The study covered 2,000 households across the country and was conducted from February to April this year, and showed that 52 percent of Filipinos expect their financial status to remain the same in the next 12 months, despite challenges they face and headwinds affecting the economy.
Close to 41 percent believe their situation will still improve, while only 7 percent think it will worsen in the months to come.
Kantar also found that seven out of 10 Filipinos manage their family’s needs by having an extra job or starting a business, revealing a hustle culture where they try to earn more but have less time for chores, personal interests, and other activities.
The same study also showed 19 percent of local households describing themselves as struggling due to job cuts or fewer working hours that affect their pay, a figure that is less than three percent from the previous year’s survey.
Only around 8 percent said they were comfortable with their economic situation.
Although Filipinos have been hustling for ages, this survey is among the few to acknowledge that fact of life in the Philippines. Finding a second job, business, or “racket” is part of surviving, which is an indication of the quality of jobs available for our countrymen. We may have achieved low unemployment figures, but the fact that most of us need to hustle belies the truth that the quality of employment still needs a lot of improvement.
Perhaps our government, and even the private sector, can recognize this perennial need to hustle as a symptom of something they need to improve on, especially if their goal is to improve Filipino lives, which means that they shouldn’t have to hustle so hard all the time, just to make ends meet.*
