THE employment rate in Davao Region remains high at 96.7 percent in April 2023, based on the labor force survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The data from PSA, released on Friday, showed that the employment rate improved in the past six months from 95.5 percent in January. This covers the population of 3,760,000 in the region who are 15 years old and above.
The unemployment rate also improved at 3.3 percent in April from 4.5 percent in January but underemployment increased to 8.7 percent from 6.4 percent during the same period.
In April last year, the employment rate was 96.2 percent and unemployment was 3.8 percent.
Nationwide, the employment rate for April increased to 95.5 percent compared to 94.3 percent during the same month last year. Both the unemployment rate and underemployment rate also declined to 4.5 percent and 12.9 percent respectively.
According to PSA, the gain in employment was driven by the services sector.
From April 2022 to April 2023, the sectors with the highest increase on number of employed persons are wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; accommodation and food service activities; administrative and support service activities; transportation and storage; and other service activities.
The total employment nationwide reached 48.05 million as of April from 45.63 million during the same time period in 2022. ICM