Unemployment rate falls to lowest in two years – NSO

THE number of jobless Filipinos fell at its fastest pace in nearly two years with the economy growing nearly 8 percent. The National Statistics Office (NSO) on Wednesday said that unemployment went down to 6.9 percent as of July, the lowest since October 2008. A year ago the unemployment rate was 7.6 percent.

According to the agency, the actual number of jobless Filipinos was 2.7 million, lower than the 2.9 million in July last year and 3.1 million in April.

The NSO said that the number of unemployed persons was higher among males at 62.6 percent than among females with 37.4 percent.

It added that 52.4 percent of the unemployed were in the age group 15 to 24 years old.

Of the unemployed, 32.5 percent were high school graduates, 22.7 percent were college undergraduates and 20.5 percent were college graduates.

The country’s total labor force rose to 39 million from 38.5 million in January.

The underemployment rate also went down to 17.9 percent, or a total of 6.5 million workers.

The number of employed persons was estimated at 36.63 million, or an employment rate of 93.1 percent. The employment rate in July last year was recorded at 92.4 percent.

Of the estimated 36.3 million employed persons, the services sector was the largest group, comprising 51.2 percent of the total employed population.

The highest employed workforces in the services sector were in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods.

Workers in the agriculture sector accounted for 33.9 percent of the total number of the employed, while only 14.9 percent of the total employed were in the industry sector.

Among the various occupation groups, laborers and unskilled workers comprised the largest, with 31.8 percent of the total employed population.

In the first half of the year, the economy as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

GDP is the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year.

This was the highest semestral growth since 1998 at 9.3 percent.

Despite the better-than-expected GDP in the first half, the government kept its economic growth target of between 5 percent and 6 percent for this year.

For 2011 to 2016, the government expects the economy to grow between 7 percent and 8 percent. –DARWIN G. AMOJELAR SENIOR REPORTER, Manila Times