The country recorded its second lowest unemployment rate in May, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
There were a total of 2.17 million unemployed Filipinos, a 760,000 decline year on year from the 2.93 million posted in May 2022. This was also 89,000 less than the 2.26 million posted in April 2023.In terms of underemployment, the PSA said the number of these Filipinos reached 5.66 million in May 2023. This is 1.01 million less than the 6.67 million recorded in May 2022 and 543,000 less than the 6.2 million posted in April 2023.
The PSA said the country’s Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) was registered at 65.3 percent, which was higher than the reported LFPR in May 2022 at 64 percent and in April 2023 at 65.1 percent.In terms of magnitude, there were 50.43 million individuals aged 15 years old and over who were either employed or unemployed in May 2023.
The average hours worked in a week by an employed person in May 2023 was 39.3 hours, which was slightly lower than the estimate in May 2022 at 39.8 hours per week.However, this was higher than the average hours worked in April 2023 at 36.9 hours per week