Underemployment rate in October 2024 incrreased to 12.6 percent, compared to the 11.7 percent in October 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Friday.
This means that 6.08 million of the 48.16 million employed individuals expressed the desire to have either additional hours of work in their present jobs, or to have a new job with longer work hours.
Consequently, the country's unemployment rate for October 2024 decreased to 3.9 percent from 4.2 percent in October 2023. Around 1.97 million people were unemployed during the prevous month. However, the PSA noted that the numbers presented were lower than the estimated 2.09 million unemployed persons in October 2023.
Morever, compared to July 2024, there were 2.38 million unemployed people.
The PSA also noted that CALABARZON registered the highest unemployment rate of 5.7 percent in October 2024, while the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) had the lowest unemployment rate of 2.3 percent.
Despite the increase in underemployement, in October 2024 the employment rate was recorded at 96.1 percent. This is slightly higher than the recorded percentage in the previous month and in 2023.
Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate (LFPR) in October 2024 translated to a total of 50.12 million Filipinos aged 15 years old and over. Additionally, the proportion of youth not in education, employmnt, or training (NEET) in October 2024, increased to 12.4 percent from the 11.7 percent in October 2023.