PH unemployment steady at 5.4%

An increase in hiring of workers in the services and agriculture sectors resulted in better employment levels for the Philippines in July 2019 as well as lower underemployment, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said on Tuesday.

In a statement, NEDA said that the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority for July showed that employment rate increased by 5.7 percent in July 2019, from 1.2 percent in July 2018.

This translates to 2.3 million additional employment, almost five times the 479,000 employment generated in the same period last year.

The unemployment rate was steady at 5.4 percent, which remained to be the lowest recorded for all July rounds of the survey since 2009.

The total number of employed Filipinos reached nearly 43 million in July 2019 on account of stronger employment in the services (6.1% from 4.7% in 2018) and agriculture sectors (7.6% from -7.4% in 2018).

Underemployment rate – the proportion of those already employed but still wanting more work – fell to its lowest in all July rounds of the survey at 13.9 percent, from year-ago’s 17.2 percent. This translates to a reduction of over a million underemployed workers in July 2019./TSB