Jobless rate in October drops to 6%

MANILA, Philippines - The unemployment rate in the Philippines dropped to 6 percent in October, an improvement from the 6.4 percent posted a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday.

With the Labor Force Participation Rate improving to 64.3 percent from 63.9 a year ago, the improvement translates to almost a million jobs created within a year.

Among the unemployed, 65.2 percent were males. Of the total unemployed, the age group 15 to 24 years comprised 49.4 percent, while the age group 25 to 34, 30.2 percent. By educational attainment, 21.6 percent of the unemployed were college graduates, 13.5 percent were college undergraduates, and 33.3 percent were high school graduates, PSA noted.

The state agency added that the National Capital Region (90.2 percent), Ilocos Region (92.5 percent), Central Luzon (92.6 percent) and CALABARZON (92.9 percent) had employment rates lower than the national figure (94 percent).

Workers in the services sector continued to comprise the largest proportion of the population who are employed, making up 53.7 percent of the total employed in October 2014. This was followed by workers in the agricultural sector, which comprised 30.8 percent of the total.

Among occupation groups, laborers and unskilled workers made up the largest group, accounting for 31.9 percent of the total employed. This was followed by the self-employed, making up 28.2 percent and unpaid family workers, accounting for 10.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the underemployment rate, pertaining to those in need of additional jobs or hours of work in their current jobs, was estimated at 18.7 percent, higher than the 18 percent recorded the same period a year ago.

The October 2014 LFS did not include employment data from Leyte, because of the large number of households displaced by typhoon Yolanda last year. The 6.4-percent unemployment rate in July 2013 also excluded data from the province to make the estimates comparable.