THERE were fewer unemployed Filipinos in December 2023 compared to the previous month, government data showed on Wednesday.

The country’s unemployment rate stood at 3.1% in December 2023, down from 4.3% in December 2022 and 3.6% in November 2023, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

In terms of magnitude, the number of unemployed Filipinos in December 2023 was estimated at 1.60 million, which was lower than the 2.22 million and 1.83 million recorded in December 2022 and November 2023, respectively.

The services sector continued to dominate the labor market in December 2023, with a share of 57.3% of the 50.52 million employed persons.

The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 24.4% and 18.3% of the employed individuals, respectively.

However, around 6.01 million of the 50.52 million employed individuals expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work in December 2023.

This translated to an underemployment rate of 11.9 percent, lower than December 2022’s 12.6% but higher than November 2023’s 11.7%.

An employed individual worked an average of 40.6 hours per week, higher than the 40.3 hours per week posted in December 2022 and 40.2 hours per week in November 2023.