By Junex Doronio
MANILA — Despite the rosy picture that the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) tried to impress that on a year-on-year basis, the employment situation improved, still there were 2.15 million unemployed Filipino workers in January 2024, up from the 1.6 million jobless workers in December last year.
National Statistician, Undersecretary Dennis Mapa on Friday pointed out that the jobless rate in January 2023 was 4.8 percent or 2.38 million unemployed.
He said the jobless rate was seen at 4.5 percent in January, which was higher than the 3.1 percent seen in December.
It can also be noted that on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the jobless rate was also higher compared to the 4.2 percent clip seen in October last year, which corresponded to 2.09 million unemployed workers.
Aside from unemployment woes, the underemployment rate also rose to 13.9 percent from 11.9 percent in December 2023.
This translates to 6.39 million out of the 45.94 million employed Pinoys who were looking for additional work hours or extra jobs.
(el Amigo/MNM)
