Unemployment rate down to 3.5%, job quality better in February

MANILA, Philipines —The number of jobless Filipinos went down in February to 1.8 million, from 2.15 million in January, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported Thursday.

That brought the country’s unemployment rate to 3.5 percent, lower than the 4.5 percent in the preceding month.

READ: PH January unemployment rate jumps to 4.5%

At the same time, 6.08 million Filipinos were underemployed in February, representing those who sought additional jobs or working hours to augment their income. That was lower than the 6.39 million underemployed persons in January.

That translated to an underemployment rate of 12.4 percent in February against the 13.9 percent in January.

The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) earlier said the Marcos administration was working on strengthening linkages among industry, the academe, and the public sector to address skill mismatches in the labor market.