Philippine jobless rate fell further to 4.2% in November

The unemployment rate in the Philippines improved to pre-pandemic levels at 4.2 percent in the Labor Force Survey done in November 2022, from 4.5 percent in October 2022 and 6.5 percent in November 2021, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

National Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a briefing the lower jobless rate was mainly due to the yearly rev-up of economic activities in the fourth quarter, particularly on account of the holidays.

The number of Filipinos who are of employment age and were actively looking for a job but failed to get hired decreased by about 65,000 to 2.18 million in November from 2.24 million in October.

Mapa said that the labor force participation rate — the number of working-age Filipinos who do have jobs or were available for jobs reckoned against the total population aged at least 15 years — was back to pre-pandemic levels at 67.5 percent in November from 64.2 percent in the previous month and a year earlier.

Contributing the most number of new hires were companies engaged in wholesale and retail trade (941,000); manufacturing (668,000); accommodation and food service activities (381,000); agriculture and forestry (247,000); and public administration and defense (203,00).

However, the biggest number of lost jobs were observed in companies engaged in construction (408,000); fishing and aquaculture (211,000); transportation and storage (39,000); administrative and support services (8,000); and mining and quarrying (4,000).