Philippines’ jobless rate falls to lowest level since start of pandemic

The Philippines’ unemployment rate fell to 7.1% in March, the lowest level since the pandemic started in April 2020 (17.6%), according to data from the Philippines Statistics Authority.

This also marks a fall from the jobless rate in February, at 8.8%. In March, the number of unemployed citizens aged 15 and above was estimated at 3.44 million, registering a fall of some 747,000 unemployed persons from the preceding month.

Meanwhile, the employment rate increased to 92.9% in March, an improvement from the 91.2% in February. Of that, the employment rate among men (93.4%) was higher as compared to women (92.2%).

By industry, the services sector remained the dominant employment sector, accounting for 56% of total employment in March. This was followed by agriculture, which employed 24.6% of workers, while the industry sector employed 19.4% of workers.

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By occupation, labour or unskilled workers made up the largest proportion of those employed (29.8%), followed by service and sales workers (20.7%), and skilled agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers (12.3%).

The average weekly hours of work also improved in March, at 39.7 hours, from 38.9 hours in February. In January, the average weekly hours of work was 39.3 hours.