Unemployment dips to lowest in 10 years

THE PERCENTAGE of Filipinos lacking jobs dipped to its lowest level in 10 years in October alongside a slide in the number of those searching for a better job, the government reported yesterday.

Preliminary estimates of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) October 2015 Labor Force Survey showed that the unemployment rate dropped to 5.7 percent at the start of the fourth quarter from 6 percent a year ago. The October figure, which did not cover Leyte province, was “the new lowest unemployment rate recorded in the past decade,” according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

The PSA noted that the October 2014 figure also did not include Leyte province, which then was still reeling from the damage brought by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) in November 2013.

“This is also the first time that unemployment rate dropped below 6 percent. In fact, for the full-year 2015, the country did better than the Philippine Development Plan target of 6.6-6.8 percent for unemployment. This is due to faster employment growth in the services and industry sectors,” Neda Director-General and Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said in a statement.

Balisacan attributed the 0.4-percent increase in the number of employed to 39 million last October to “stronger employment growth in both services and industry sectors.”  Ben O. de Vera