Unemployment rate drops to 10.1% in July

The country’s unemployment rate improved to 10.1 percent in July from 11.2 percent a year ago, representing a drop in the number of jobless Filipinos to 3.286 million from 3.425 million in the same period last year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday.

The improvement was due to the combined effects of additional number of people employed in the agriculture, industry and services sectors.

The government statistics office said the country’s total labor force in July reached 32.562 million, up 6.7 percent from the estimate of 30.5 million a year ago. Of the total, 89.9 percent or 29.281 million was registered employed, a substantial improvement from the 27.093 million recorded in the same period last year.

Out of total employed, however, 17.7 percent or 5.188 million was considered underemployed or working less than their full potentials. But because of a generally improved employment situation in key industry sectors, the number of persons seeking more jobs declined substantially from 5.752 million in July last year.

Employment in agriculture posted the highest increase of 11.4 percent or about 1.1 million more Filipinos being able to find jobs in the sector. In real terms, the agricultural workers swelled to 11 million in July from nine million a year ago.

The unpaid family workers contributed substantially to the increase in the number of employed in the agriculture sector with 568,000 while own account workers accounted for an additional 564,000. The number of wage and salary workers in the agriculture sector slightly declined by 8,000.

The services sector was able to give jobs to 13.6 million Filipinos, a 6.3 percent increase from 12.796 million in the same period last year.

The wholesale and retail trade sub-sector accounted for the largest share, creating employment for 5.3 million Filipinos. The financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector contributed 825,000 jobs while the transportation, storage and communication had 2.112 million.

The number of gainfully employed Filipinos under the industry sector also went up to 4.7 million in July from 4.4 million a year earlier. This was due mainly to increases recorded in the manufacturing, construction and electricity, gas and water sub-sectors.

Seven regions posted a double-digit unemployment rate with Metro Manila posting the highest increase at 15.7 percent. This was followed by Southern Tagalog, 11.3 percent; Central Visayas, 10.5 percent; Southern Mindanao, 10.3 percent; Central Luzon and Western Visayas, 10.1 percent; and Ilocos Region, 10 percent.