Underemployment, unemployment decline in January – PSA

Filipino workers. AFP FILE

MANILA, Philippines — The number of Filipinos in the labor force who wanted more working hours or better jobs than what they have dropped to 15.6 percent in January, the government reported Thursday.

Results of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) January 2019 Labor Force Survey showed that the underemployment rate declined from 18 percent during the same month last year.

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 an additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours.”

In 2018, the share of underemployed belonging to the labor force population inched up to 16.4 percent for the entire year from 16.1 percent in 2017.

The labor force, comprised of those 15 years old and above, increased to 72.5 million last January from 70.9 million a year ago, the PSA’s preliminary estimates showed.

Despite an increase in the labor force population, the unemployment rate also slightly eased to 5.2 percent in January from 5.3 percent last year. /cbb