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Unemployment rate eases to 4.3% in May

Jobseekers line up at Mega Job Fair during the Labor Day celebration held in San Andres Sports Complex. There were a number of people who came from different regions to be part of the said job fair. Most of them have been interviewed by employers while others join the queue inside the compound.

The Philippines’ unemployment rate declined further to 4.3%, representing 2.17 million individuals, in May, according to government data released on Friday.

The unemployment rate in May was an improvement from April’s 4.5% (2.26 million individuals) and the 6% registered in May 2022.

”The May 2023 unemployment rate was the second lowest since April 2005, following the 4.2% unemployment rate in November 2022,” the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said in a statement.

The average number of hours worked in a week by an employed person in May 2023 was 39.3 hours, slightly lower than the 39.8 hours per week posted a year ago. It was also higher than the average hours worked in April 2023, at 36.9 hours per week.

Services continued to have the largest share of the total employed population in May 2023 at 58.8%, followed by agriculture and industry sectors, which accounted for 24.3% and 16.9%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of underemployed individuals or employed persons who expressed the desire to have an additional hour of work in their present job, to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work stood at 5.66 million, translating to an underemployment rate of 11.7%.

”The underemployment rate in May 2023 was the second lowest since April 2005, with the March 2023 underemployment rate of 11.2% [being] the lowest,” the PSA said.

Carl Santos