The Philippines Statistics Authority said Friday the unemployment rate declined to pre-pandemic level of 4.5 percent in April as the economy continued to mend amid easing COVID-19 pandemic challenges.
The jobless figure in April is equivalent to 2.26 million Filipinos looking for employment but didn’t find work. In April last year, unemployment rate was 5.7 percent or 2.76 million people.
The employment rate rose to a four-month high 95.5 percent in April but the quality of jobs the economy has created leaves much to be desired. Data showed that those who consider themselves underemployed—or those looking for more work—accounted for 12.9 percent of the labor force in April, the same level in February but up from 11.2 percent in March.
The PSA estimated that there were 48.06 million employed Filipinos in April out of the 50.31 million Filipinos aged 15 years or older who comprise the labor force.
National Statistician Dennis Mapa said the increase in underemployment was a result of jobs created in April coming primarily from wholesale and retail, manufacturing, agriculture and construction.
Wage and salary workers had the largest share of employed persons with 61.5 percent of the total employed persons in April 2023. This was followed by self-employed persons without any paid employee at 27.5 percent and unpaid family workers at 8.5 percent. Employer in own family-operated farm or business had the lowest share of 2.5 percent.
Mapa said wages continued to increase, with the average growth at 7.7 percent in the first four months of the year.
The salary increase in the January-April period, however, was eroded by headline inflation, which averaged 7.9 percent.
