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Friday, March 29, 2024

Unemployment rate fell to 6.5% in 2015

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Unemployment rate, or the percentage of jobless Filipinos, fell to 6.5 percent in 2015 from 6.8 percent in 2014, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Preliminary results of the annual labor and employment estimates for 2015 showed that 2.6 million Filipinos were jobless in 2015.

“Of this number, 79.8 percent belonged to age group 15 to 34 years while those in age group 15 to 24 years comprised 49 percent and those in the age group 25 to 34 years, 30.8 percent,” national statistician Lisa Grace Bersales said.

PSA said the estimates were based on the average results of the quarterly labor force survey rounds in January, April, July and October.

Unemployed males were recorded at 1.66 million, or 63.7 percent of the total jobless Filipinos while unemployed females reached 940,000.

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A third of unemployed persons were high school graduates (33.5 percent) and more than a fifth were college graduates (21.8 percent).  

Data also showed that underemployment rate inched up to 18.5 percent in 2015 from 18.4 percent a year ago.

“The underemployed persons or those employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours was estimated at 7.2 million persons,” Bersales said.

PSA said employed persons, which were grouped into agriculture, industry and services sector, were estimated at 38.7 million in 2015, up from 37.3 million in 2014.

Those in the services sector comprised more than half (54.7 percent) of the total employed persons.  About 18.9 percent were engaged in wholesale and retail trade or in the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles. 

Workers in the agriculture sector made up the second largest group accounting for 29.1 percent, while those in the industry sector represented 16.2 percent.

PSA data also showed that in terms of occupation, laborers and unskilled workers comprised the largest proportion with 31.5 percent among the total employed persons. 

Those working as officials of the government and special-interest organizations, corporate executives, managers, managing proprietors and supervisors accounted for 16.3 percent, followed by farmers, forestry workers and fishermen (12.9 percent); and service workers and shop/market sales workers (12.7 percent).

Among the employed, 63 percent were full-time workers who worked for 40 hours or more each week, while the rest were part-time workers who went to work for less than 40 hours a week.

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