Metro Manila, January 13 ------ Around 1.83 million Filipinos were unemployed in November 2023, figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed. In its briefing on the labor force, the PSA said the latest number was around 257,000 lower than the 2.09 million jobless Pinoys recorded in October 2023. This represents a national unemployment rate of 3.6% - lower than the 4.2% recorded in both October 2023 and in November 2022.
This also means that there were 49.64 million employed Filipinos or a 96.4% employment rate. According to National Statistician Dennis Mapa, the 96.4% employment rate and the 3.6% unemployment rate for November 2023 represent the highest and lowest that these figures have been since April 2005, respectively. Mapa attributed this to the National Statistics Office’s changing of the definition of unemployment in April 2005 to include all persons 15-years-old and over as of their last birthday who are without work, available for work, seeking work, or not seeking work.
Meanwhile, the number of underemployed Filipinos – individuals seeking higher income or better jobs with longer working hours – dropped to 5.79 million or 11.7% in November 2023, the same rate as the month before. Last month, Mapa said local employers tend to hire more workers in the fourth quarter of the year to accommodate the holiday rush.
These five industries saw the highest increase in the number of employed persons between November 2022 and November 2023:
-Agriculture and forestry (1.24 million)
-Construction (453,000)
-Transportation and storage (308,000)
-Fishing and aquaculture (305,000)
-Administrative and support service activities (189,000)
The PSA said this iteration of the labor force survey had a participation rate of 65.9%, representing 51.47 million Filipinos. This is higher than the 63.9% participation from the month before.
Source: cnnphilippines.com
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