President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. Has committed his administration to create more and quality jobs for Filipinos, as he welcomed the drop in the country’s unemployment in April 2023.
“Malaking oportunidad ito para pag-igihin pa ang paghahanap at pagbibigay ng kalidad na pagkakakitaan sa ating mga kababayan (
“This is a big opportunity to strive harder to create quality jobs that we could offer to our fellow countrymen)” the Chief Executive said in his Facebook post.
The country’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.5% in April 2023 from 5.7% in the same month last year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) April 2023 Labor Force Survey.
The PSA reported that the number of unemployed Filipinos in April 2023 was estimated at 2.26 million, down from the 2.76 million in April last year. Employment rate in April 2023 went up to 95.5% from 94.3% in April 2022.
The PSA report said there are about 48.06 million employed Filipinos in April 2023, higher than the 45.63 million posted in the same period last year.
Marcos said the government would take advantage of technology to generate more job opportunities in the country. “The number of employed Filipinos rose to 48.06 million this April,” he noted.
“That’s why our administration would continue to focus on strengthening the labor force and using the technology for the benefit of our labor market,” he added.
PSA data also showed the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) has increased to 65.1% in April 2023 or about 50.31 million Filipinos aged 15 years old and over who were either employed or unemployed.
The reported LFPR in April 2023 was also higher than the reported rate of 63.4% in April 2022 and 64.5% in January 2023. LFPR among males (75.4%) was higher compared to females (54.7%) although the employment rate was higher among females at 96% than their male counterparts at 95.2%.
The PSA said the underemployment rate among males was higher (14.6%) than for females (10.6%). The unemployment rate for males was registered at 4.8% of the 29.27 million males in the labor force, while 4.0% of the 21.04 million females in the labor force were unemployed in April 2023.
The services sector continued to dominate the labor market having the largest share of employed persons of about 61.1% of the total number of employed persons in April 2023, the PSA report said, adding that the year-on-year gain in employment was driven by the services sector.
The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 21.9% and 17.0%, respectively. The top five sub-sectors with the highest increase on the number of employed persons from April 2022 to April 2023 include wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (914,000); accommodation and food service activities (379,000); administrative and support service activities (345,000); transportation and storage (321,000); and other service activities (242,000).
PHOTO: President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (Photo Courtesy of NewPost)
