Philippine jobless rate falls further to 4.3 percent in May

By Edward Era Barbacena 

The Philippines’ unemployment rate dipped to 4.3 percent in May which was the second lowest rate seen since April 2005, the state statistics bureau said on Friday.

This was lower than the 4.5 percent jobless rate in April and the 6 percent rate recorded in May last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.

For May, there were 2.17 million Filipinos who were unemployed, which was lower than the 2.26 million jobless workers seen in April and the 2.93 million jobless in May 2022.

The underemployment rate also dipped to 11.7 percent in May from 12.9 percent in April.

“The underemployment rate in May 2023 was the second lowest since April 2005 with March 2023 underemployment rate of 11.2 percent as the lowest,” the PSA said.

The underemployed are defined by the PSA as workers who already have a job but are still looking for more work hours or other employment.

“Wage and salary workers continued to account for the largest share of employed persons with 60.5 percent of the total employed persons in May 2023,” the PSA said.

Self-employed persons meanwhile stood at 28.1 percent and unpaid family workers at 9.2 percent.

Employees in private establishments made up 46.5 percent of the total employed persons, followed by employees in government or government-controlled corporations with 8.8 percent share.

Wages in the National Capital Region were recently raised by P40 per day, which some labor groups decried as not enough. Business groups meanwhile warned that it will impact small businesses, and may weigh on the economy.

The country’s economy grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter.

Inflation meanwhile continued to ease for a 5th straight month settling at 5.4 percent in June.