PH January unemployment rate jumps to 4.5%

MANILA, Philippines  — The country’s unemployment rate jumped to 4.5 percent in January from the record-low rate of 3.1 percent in December, with fewer job seekers also recorded in the first month of the year.

A nationwide survey of 169,700 households showed there were 2.15 million unemployed Filipinos in January, higher than 1.60 million recorded in December, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Friday.

At the same time 6.39 million people sought additional working hours in January to augment their income, up from 6.01 million in December.

Job quality

That translates to an underemployment rate of 13.9 percent, up from 11.9 percent in the preceding month and indication of a deteriorating job quality.

The increase in unemployment rate coincided with the drop in the country’s labor force, which represents people aged 15 and above who are actively looking for jobs.

In January, 48.09 million people were part of the labor force, down from 52.13 million in December.

That was equivalent to a labor force participation rate of 61.1 percent in January, lower than 66.6 percent in the previous month.