THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the unemployment rate in Northern Mindanao has improved to 4.9 percent in 2021.

It is lower by 1.5 percentage points than the 2020 annual estimate of 6.4 percent.

According to PSA, there are a total of 119,000 unemployed individuals in the total labor force of Northern Mindanao.

Among the provinces and highly urbanized cities in the region, Lanao del Norte posted the lowest unemployment rate of 2.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the underemployment rate in Northern Mindanao decreased to 14.3 percent in 2021 from 23.6 percent in 2020.

In the region, there are a total of 327,000 employed persons who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, to have additional job or have a new job with longer working hours.

Among the provinces and highly urbanized cities in the region, Iligan City posted the lowest underemployment rate of 5 percent.