FILE PHOTO: A man looks at a poster showing the list of jobs for hire. INQUIRER/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
The Philippine government is leveraging digital technologies to boost the quality of jobs in the country as the unemployment rate continues to improve, setting a five-month best of 4.5 percent in April with 2.26 million Filipinos available and looking for jobs.
According to preliminary data at the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the number of job seekers decreased by 506,000 last April from 2.76 million compared to the same month in 2022.
The jobless rate was pegged at 5.7 percent a year earlier with 2.76 million job seekers in April 2022 and 4.8 percent three months earlier with 2.37 million looking for jobs last January.
The industries that contributed the most were wholesale and retail trade (with 914,000 hires), accommodation and food service activities (379,000) and administrative and support service activities (345,000).On the other hand, the industries that lost the most jobs were agriculture and forestry (shedding 290,000 workers), manufacturing (204,000) and construction (65,000).
Also, the underemployment rate decreased to 12.9 percent from 14 percent in April 2022 and 14.1 percent a quarter ago in January.
READ: PH’s unemployment rate stays at 7.7% in June