Number of jobless Pinoys rises in July, govt says

The number of jobless Filipinos rose in July with Metro Manila recording the biggest number of unemployed, the government said on Tuesday. Some 2.920-million Filipinos were jobless, 6.3-percent higher than the estimated 2.749-million unemployed Filipinos during the same month last year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said. As of July this year, 64.6 percent of Filipinos aged 15 years old and above – or 38.4 million persons – belonged to the Philippines’ total labor force of 59.512 million. This was higher than the 64.3 percent of Filipinos who fell within the same age range in July last year when the labor force reached 58.119 million. Most jobless Filipinos were located in highly urbanized areas. "Across regions, the National Capital Region (NCR) (12.1 percent) and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon province) (11.1 percent) posted the highest unemployment rate and lowest in ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) at 3.4 percent," the NSO said. The rate of underemployment, or the employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours, declined to 19.8 percent from 21 percent. "Most of the underemployed were working in the agriculture sector (44.1 percent) and services sector (40.3 percent). The underemployed in the industry sector accounted for 15.6 percent," the NSO added. Of the estimated 35.5 million employed persons in July 2009, the services sector was the largest employer, getting more than half or 51.5 percent. Those employed in the services sector were in wholesale and retail trade, in the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and in the personal and household goods industry. The agriculture sector was the second-largest employer, accounting for 33.6 percent. Only 14.8 percent of the total employed were in the industry sector. Among the various occupation groups, laborers and unskilled workers comprised the largest proportion, 33 percent, of the total employed population. Farmers, forestry workers and fishermen were the second largest group, accounting for 16.2 percent of the total employed population. More than half, or 55.3 percent, of the labor force were wage and salary workers, while more than a third or 33.9 percent were own-account workers and 10.8 percent were unpaid family workers. Among the wage and salary workers, those working for private establishments comprised the largest proportion at 40.8 percent. Government workers or those working for government corporations comprised only 8.3 percent of the total employed, while six percent were workers in private households. The self-employed comprised the majority at 29.5 percent of the total employed. - GMANews.TV