Unemployment rate inches up to 5.6% in July

The jobless rate inched up to 5.6 percent in July from 5.4 percent a year ago as more Filipinos joined the labor force, the government reported Tuesday.

In a report, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said its latest preliminary estimates showed that 94.4 percent of the labor force population were employed in July, slightly down from 94.6 percent last year.

In July, the labor force population, which consisted of those with jobs as well as the jobless who were aged 15 and up, stood at 70.164 million, up from a year ago’s 68.429 million.

The underemployment rate, meanwhile, declined to 16.3 percent in July from last year’s 17.3 percent.

The PSA defines the underemployed as “employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours.” /je