Philippines unemployment rate in 2018 decreased to 5.3% from 5.7% in 2017. Out of 71 million Filipinos, only 3.5 million were unemployed, and 11.7 million were underemployed.
As cited in the report of AgrinationPH, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recorded  41.2 million Filipinos were employed, making 58% of the population. Significantly, this is 94.7 percent from 94.3 percent in 2017.
In terms of regions, Ilocos Region (6.8%), NCR and CALABARZON (6.6%) were the regions with the highest unemployment rates in the Philippines.
The Annual Labor and Employment Status of PSA also stated that based on sectors, “workers in the services sector composed the largest proportion of the employed persons. These workers made up 56.6 percent of the total employed in 2018”. Specifically, those engaged in the wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles accounted the largest proportion (19.4%) of workers, under the service sector.
Moreover, 24.3 percent of the total employed in 2018, while workers in the industry sector made up the smallest group registering 19.1 percent of the total employed.
On the other, report estimated that in 2018, 6.7 million persons correspond to an underemployment rate of 16.4 percent. Underemployed workers, persons who work for less than 40 hours in a week are called visibly, accounted 53.2 percent of the total underemployed persons in 2018 and 56.0 percent in 2017. Respectively, “45.5 percent of the underemployed persons worked in the services sector, while 34.6 percent were in the agriculture sector. Those in the industry sector accounted for 19.9 percent”.
Source:Â PH Unemployment Rate Decreased in 2018
