PH jobless rate down to 5.3% but underemployment up in January

Filipinos seeking jobs troop to a job fair sponsored by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. INQUIRER FILE

Jobless rate declined to 5.3 percent although the number of underemployed increased in January amid the growing labor force population in the country, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday.

According to PSA, the nation’s jobless or unemployment rate at the start of 2018 went down from 6.6 percent in January 2017.

The PSA said the number of jobless dropped even as the labor force participation rate rose to 62.2 percent from 50.7 percent a year ago.

The labor force also grew from 69.4 million a year ago to 70.9 million this January. Labor force includes people 15 years old and above.

But the PSA likewise noted that underemployment rate in the country soared to 18 percent in January 2018 from 16.3 percent in January 2017.

The PSA defines 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.”                       /kga