PH unemployment rate down to 4.2% in Oct

MANILA  -The proportion of unemployed Filipinos in the total labor force slightly went down in October, although the quality of available jobs appeared to have deteriorated, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Thursday.

The PSA report showed there were 2.09 million Filipinos who were either jobless or out of business in October.

That was equivalent to an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, down from 4.5 percent in the previous month.

But more people sought additional working hours to augment their income, an indication that job quality declined during the month. There were 5.6 million underemployed persons in October, up from 5.11 million in September.

That translated to an underemployment rate of 11.7 percent, up from 10.7 percent in the previous month.

The 95.8 percent employment rate in October, the PSA said, was the highest recorded since April 2005.