The PSA said 47.58 million Filipinos were employed in September 2022, lower than the number of employed persons in August 2022 at 47.87 million but higher than the 43.59 million employed persons in September 2021.
It said the unemployment rate, on the other hand, went down from 5.3 percent in August to 5 percent in September.
“This translates to 2.50 million unemployed Filipinos out of 50.08 million Filipinos who were in the labor force in September 2022. The unemployment rate in September 2021 was higher at 8.9 percent,” the PSA said.
It said the labor force participation rate (LFPR) in September 2022 was at 65.2 percent or about 50.08 million individuals who were either employed or unemployed out of the 76.83 million Filipinos aged 15 years and above.
The September 2022 LFPR was lower than the August 2022 LFPR of 66.1 percent.
The underemployment or those employed but wanted additional hours of work in their current job or to have an additional job or to have a new job with longer hours of work stood at 7.33 million out of the 47.58 million employed Filipinos.
“This translates to an underemployment rate of 15.4 percent, which was higher than the reported underemployment rate in August 2022 (14.7 percent) and in September last year (14.2 percent),” the PSA said.
The top sub-sectors with highest employment as in September were manufacturing with 1.09 million employed Filipinos; wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles with 852,000; agriculture and forestry with 599,000; accommodation and food service activities with 482,000; and transportation and storage with 470,000.
Construction; fishing and aquaculture; arts, entertainment, and recreation; electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply; and water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities were top five sub sectors with largest drop in terms of employed persons. (SunStar Philippines)