THE number of jobless Filipinos in the Philippines went down to 1.83 million in November 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday, January 9, 2024.
The PSA said the 1.83 unemployed Filipinos for November 2023, which is 3.6 percent of the country’s workforce, is lower than the unemployment rates in November 2022 and October 2023, which both stood at 4.2 percent or 2.18 million and 2.09 million, respectively.
It said the employment rate went up to 96.4 percent, which is 49.64 million employed Filipinos, from 95.8 percent during the month prior and the same month in 2022.
Of the 49.64 million employed Filipinos, 61.5 percent were wage and salary workers, 28.6 percent were self-employed without paid employees, eight percent were unpaid family members, and 1.9 percent were workers in family-owned farms or businesses.
The labor force participation rate (LFPR), or the estimate of the economy’s active workforce who are 15 years old and above registered at 65.9 percent or 51.47 million Filipinos, higher than October 2023’s 63.9 percent but lower as compared to the same month in 2022.
Each employed Filipino is working an average of 40.2 hours per week as of November 2023, higher than 39.3 average weekly hours worked in November 2022, but lower than the 41.2 average hours worked per week in October 2023.
Of the total employed Filipinos, 11.7 percent are underemployed or 5.79 million individuals. These are those who are employed but wanted additional hours of work in their current job or to have an additional job or to have a new job with longer hours.
The PSA said the service sector continued to dominate the labor market in terms of employed persons at 59.5 percent, while the agriculture and industry sector shared 24.6 and 15.9 percent, respectively, of the total persons with jobs.
The agriculture and forestry, construction, transportation and storage, fishing and aquaculture and administrative and support service activities were the top five sub-sectors with the highest annual increases in the number of employed persons.
Manufacturing; wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; public administration and defense, compulsory social security; information and communication; and real estate activities were the five sub-sectors that recorded the highest annual decreases in the number of employed persons. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)