MANILA – The Philippines recorded higher unemployment and underemployment rates in October compared to the previous month, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday.
PSA Undersecretary and National Statistician Dennis Mapa revealed that the country’s unemployment rate in October was 3.9 percent, a slight increase from 3.7 percent in September. However, the rate marked an improvement from the 4.2 percent unemployment recorded in October of the previous year.
This means that in October, 1.97 million Filipino workers were unemployed, an increase from the 1.89 million jobless workers recorded in September.
At the same time, the underemployment rate rose to 12.6 percent in October, up from 11.9 percent in September. This was also higher than the 11.7 percent rate in October of the previous year. As a result, 6.08 million Filipino workers were classified as underemployed.
The PSA defines underemployment as individuals who are employed but seeking additional work or longer hours. A high underemployment rate often signals that available jobs may be of lower quality or do not meet workers’ financial needs.