By Junex Doronio
MANILA — There’s still the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel for the Filipino people as under the present administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. the country’s employment rate in October 2023 was 95.8 percent, higher than the 95.5 percent in the same month last year.
This was trumpeted on Thursday (December 7) by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), acknowledging the employment situation is the highest recorded since April 2005 and the same estimated rate in November 2022.
“In terms of levels, the number of employed persons 15 years old and over was recorded at 80 million in October 2023, which was higher compared with 47.06 million in October 2022 and 44.63 million in July 2023,” National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Dennies Mapa disclosed.
According to the PSA, the services sector dominated the labor market in October 2023 in terms of employed persons at 47.80 million, while the agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 22.2 percent and 17.8 percent of the employed persons, respectively.
It also noted that the unemployment rate dropped to 4.2 percent in October 2023, lower than the 4.5 percent in October 2022.
“The reported unemployment rate in October 2023 was the lowest since April 2005,” Mapa further said.
It was gathered that the National Capital Region (NCR) suffered the highest unemployment rate of 5.4 percent in October 2023, while the Davao Region had the lowest reported unemployment rate of 2.9 percent.
(ai/mnm)