Jobless rate improves to 7.2% in April

MANILA, Philippines – Favorable weather and improved economic conditions pulled down the number of jobless people nationwide, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

Labor Undersecretary Danilo Cruz said results of the latest Labor Force Survey of the National Statistics Office (NSO) indicated that the number of unemployed in April dropped to 2.9 million compared to the same period last year.

“Unemployment level in the country went down from eight percent to 7.2 percent which means the number of jobless in April was 228,000 fewer compared to last year so this is really a very positive development,” Cruz said.

He attributed the decline in the unemployment level to good weather condition that boosted the agricultural sector, which posted a 5.6-percent growth this year.

Last year, Cruz said the country experienced severe typhoons and droughts triggering a slump in the employment rate in the agriculture sector, the second largest industry group.

“After suffering from severe weather last year, our agriculture sector’s condition has greatly improved as seen by very good harvest. In fact the agri sector posted a record high output,” Cruz explained.

He further noted that almost all the sectors, including manufacturing, recorded positive employment growth this year, thus boosting the country employment rate.

The same NSO survey also showed that the employment rate in April increased from 92 percent to 92.8 percent with the Zamboanga Peninsula recording the highest employment rate.

“Based on the NSO survey, we have an additional 1.4 million newly employed persons this year, indicating that we are able to achieve our target and that many of the new entrants to the labor force were able to find employment,” he said.

Other labor officials said they were previously expecting a slowdown in the services sectors but it surprisingly sustained growth, thus helping in increasing the employment level.

 Out of the 61.8 million people 15 years old and over, about 39.7 million were in the labor force. The bulk of the employed were in the services sector.

The employment growth in April also showed that workers are starting to feel the impact of the government’s emergency and other employment promotion programs, Cruz said.