Jobless rate rises to 10.3% in Jan.

Unemployment rate crept up to 10.3 percent in January compared to 9.8 percent when it was last measured in October 2001, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Industrial jobs fell by 1.8 percent from a year earlier to about 3.6 million while agricultural employment rose by 7.4 percent to 11 million and jobs in the service industry grew by 7.2 percent to 14.1 million, the agency said in a statement.

The January unemployment rate was a full percentage point below the year-ago level of 11.3 percent.

The statement also said that the country’s labor force grew by 4.4 percent from a year earlier to 33.1 million.

Of the industrial jobs lost, the manufacturing sector shed 55,000 workers with construction jobs down by 32,000 and mining off by 3,000.

The industrial sector was hit largely after exports shrank by more than 15 percent last year due to recession in the country’s biggest exports markets – the United States and Japan, analysts say.

The data is collected every quarter.

Manila registered the highest unemployment of 16.1 percent due to the high number of job seekers coming to the capital. Southern Mindanao, one of the country’s poorest regions, had an unemployment rate of 10.7 percent.

Analysts expected an increase in unemployment in the January labor survey.

"Lingering external trade uncertainty, despite positive news emerging from the U.S. market, and lack of resurgence in domestic demand could lead to job losses," said Salomon Smith Barney economist Jun Trinidad in a recent report.

The unemployment rates is seasonally highest in April, when new graduates join the labor force.

The country’s population is around 75 million. – AFP, AP