Jobless rate rises to 7.5 pct in Jan.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - Unemployment rate in the Philippines went up to 7.5 percent in January from 7.1 percent recorded a year ago, according to preliminary estimates released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) today.

In its January Labor Force Survey (LFS), PSA said most of the 2. 96 million jobless people are male, aged 15 to 24 years old and only completed secondary school.

The country's capital region, the National Capital Region, continued to have the highest unemployment rate at 11.2 percent.

PSA figures also showed that underemployment remained high at 19.5 percent in January. Underemployed people are those who work less than 40 hours a week.

The number of those employed reached 36.42 million in January, higher than the 36.13 million recorded a year ago. The services sector employed the most number of workers, with 54.1 percent of those who have jobs working in this sector.

Among the major occupation groups, the laborers and unskilled workers remained the largest group, making up 31.3 percent of the total employed in January 2014.

PSA said the January LFS excluded the Eastern Visayas region in central Philippines which was devastated by super typhoon Haiyan ( local name: Yolanda).