(Eagle News) — The number of unemployed Filipinos went down to 2.93 million in January 2022.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, this was 1.04 million less than the figure reported in January of 2021.
The employment situation in the country for the first month of 2022 also improved, according to the PSA, from 91.2 percent in January 2021 to 93.6 percent this year.
This translates to 43.02 million people in January 2022, a 1.77 million increase from the 41.25 million reported in January 2021.
The PSA said the 93.6 percent employment rate was also higher than employment rate reported in the previous quarter, at 92.6 percent.
By broad industry group, the services sector still posted the largest share of employed persons at 58.9 percent.
The agriculture and the industry sectors contributed 21.7 percent and 19.3 percent respective share of the employed population.
Meanwhile, the top five sub-sectors with the highest increase in employed persons from January 2021 to January 2022 were:
a. Manufacturing (490,000);
b. Administrative and support service activities (413,000);
c. Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (363,000);
d. Transportation and storage (225,000); and
e. Public administration and defense; compulsory social security
(222,000).
The sub-sectors that posted the highest changes in terms of number of people employed from quarter to quarter (from October 2021 to January 2022), meanwhile, were the following:
a. Transportation and storage (327,000);
b. Manufacturing (304,000);
c. Administrative and support service activities (229,000);
d. Construction (167,000); and
e. Other service activities (117,000).
Underemployed persons or employed persons who expressed a desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work were at 6.40 million, translating to an underemployment rate of 14.9 percent.
“This was lower than the 16.0 percent reported in January 2021 but higher than the 14.7 percent reported in December 2021,” the PSA said.