Jobless Filipinos swell amid lethargic growth

Filipinos without jobs ballooned by more than 190,000 in October from a year earlier, following disappointing economic growth, the National Statistics Office (NSO) announced on Tuesday. As a result, the country’s jobless rate worsened to 7.1 percent as of end-October from 6.8 percent the year before, but better than the end-July level of 7.6 percent. The government said the number of jobless Filipinos reached 2.72 million as of end-October from 2.53 million a year earlier. The economy grew by a measly 0.8 percent in the third quarter, below the government's 0.8-1.8 percent goal for the year. "The number of unemployed persons was higher among males (63.8 percent) than among females (36.2 percent). About one-half (50.3 percent) of the unemployed were in the age group of 15-24 years," the NSO said in a statement. Among the unemployed, high school graduates made up more than a third, college undergraduates a fifth, and college graduates another fifth. The latest labor survey also showed that the underemployment rate had worsened to 19.4 percent in October from 17.5 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, underemployed Filipinos were estimated at 6.9 million. Almost two-thirds of the total underemployed were working for less than 40 hours, while those working for 40 hours or more accounted for 37.9 percent. Employed persons who want hike their work hours or have a new job with longer work hours are considered underemployed. Most of the underemployed were working in the agriculture sector (46.4 percent) and services (38.5 percent). The underemployed in the industry sector accounted for 15 percent of the total, the NSO said. It said almost a million jobs were created in the past year, mostly in the service sector, particularly in wholesale and retail trade, and motor vehicle repair. The agriculture sector was the second largest employer, accounting for 34 percent of the total employed. Only 14.5 percent of the total employed were in the industry sector. — NPA, GMANews.TV